Thaumoctopus mimicus, the mimic octopus of Indonesia, is the consummate copy-cat. All octopi can change their skin color to blend into the background, thus avoiding predators or fooling prey. But thaumoctopus ups its game: It actually does imitations.
When it wants to swim through hostile waters, it decks itself out in the pinstriped spines of a poisonous lionfish. To cruise the ocean floor, it Frisbees itself into a toxic flatfish. If its arch-enemy the damselfish comes nosing about, it turns one of its eight appendages into a damselfish-devouring sea-snake. There’s an element of the marvelous in all of this: Thaumoctopus means something like “eight-armed wonderworker” and the name seems apt. Another great shape-shifting member of the species goes by the moniker wunderpus, which I roughly translate as “miracle face.”
We Americans like to see ourselves as rugged individualists but for all our efforts to march to the beat of our own djembe the fact remains that we, too, are unconscious mimics. In conversation with friends we match their body language, posture, and speech patterns. This puts the other person at ease, and tests have shown that you can stress somebody out by deliberately failing to reflect such imitative cues.
Paul is all for thaumoctopus theology. In his greeting to the Thessalonian congregation he commends them for becoming “imitators” of the original apostolic band, and then for offering themselves as an “example” for their own converts. That first word gives us our English term mimic, and the latter leads to our noun type.
Of course, any imitation is only as good as its original object. Reproduce an imperfect pattern and you perpetuate its flaws. Paul pursued Christ with such passion that he dared offer his own life as a connect-the-dots template for his congregation. They in turn had the nerve to display their pattern of discipleship as a paint-by-numbers paradigm for those they won to Jesus.
The New Testament challenges Christians to such concentration on Christ that we become eight-armed miracles, nimble wonder-pusses who can show the face of Jesus to drive away the devil or enfold our fellows in an inescapable embrace of octagonal love. Of course, the analogy breaks down because thaumoctopus, whatever his external wardrobe, remains an octopus on the inside. We, by contrast, embody the internal transformation of the Holy Spirit who reworks us from the inside out. But, Paul’s words seem to indicate, a proper outer focus seems to empower this inner revolution.
As Christians we are all of us swimming through shark-infested waters and in our own persons we lack the resources for survival. So the important questions become: Who are you looking at? And who’s looking at you?
Octoprayerfully,
Doug
Collect
Heavenly Father, you sent Your Son to be not only our substitute but also our example, and He sent forth His apostles to extend that pattern to Your church. Grant now that we may so focus on Jesus and the faith once for all revealed to the saints that our world may see the true image of Christ the Son, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever, Amen.
Benediction
May you focus your faith on Christ,
For He is our author and finisher.
May you find faithful Christians on whom you can focus,
For in them Christ comes among us.
May you faithfully show forth Christ to those who focus on you,
For they seek an example to follow.
In the name of the Father,
And of the Son,
And of the Holy Spirit,
Amen.
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