According to the Pattern Shown You

Teaching my children at home taught me a lot about learning. The challenge in teaching children is teaching them how to learn. If done faithfully, the result will be a lifelong curious learner, a lover of what is real and true, a seeker of both knowledge and wisdom.

My immediate challenge was that my two children had wildly different learning styles, which took some intense study on my part to comprehend. Then, the challenging endeavor of teaching them revealed much about how learning happens.

I observed that my children’s different learning styles led each of them to identify and follow patterns: abstract patterns could be followed to acquire language, analyze force and motion, and solve math problems. Other patterns could be followed to craft objects, design garments, and create artwork that now graces my home. Still other patterns helped produce nutritious meals, manage a household, and grade papers (Mom learned too). Good patterns keep things “real.”

Implicit in a good pattern is faith—the assurance that following the pattern faithfully yields the promised result. During the Israelites’ journey to their Promised Land, God gave Moses a pattern that, if faithfully followed, would yield a tabernacle where priests would minister—an earthly representation of an eternal truth, a foreshadowing of God dwelling among His people:

“Now the main point of what we are saying is this: We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by a mere human being. … They [earthly priests] serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” (Hebrews 8:1, 5) 

The patterns we make for selfish gain tend to result in counterfeit things: counterfeit wisdom, counterfeit relationships, even counterfeit human beings (a quick online search will show that narcissism and co-dependency are epidemic in our culture).

The patterns God gives us are trustworthy. They always produce knowledge (learning) of genuine, eternal things. Jesus, our true High Priest, teaches reliably good subject matter, and He teaches us how to learn. He is the eternal Truth from whom all good patterns flow: for daily worship and living, for growing in wisdom and faith, for loving one another well.

Thank You, Lord, for giving us patterns for living that are trustworthy and true, and thank You for teaching us how to learn well. We eagerly await the full realization of Your dwelling among us when You return, and we treasure those things that are copies of what is in heaven.

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 Scripture quotations are taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.