Who do you spend time with?

I remember reading a comic book when I was younger. It had a story about people and their dogs. And how people tend to look like the dogs they have. Or the other way around.
 
The long, shaggy-haired, hippie-style man owned a long-haired Afghan dog.
The prim and proper wealthy woman, walking with her nose in the air, owned a prim and proper Poodle which kept in step with her owner.
The short and stocky Bulldog sauntered beside his short and stocky master.

You get the idea.

I thought it was a funny comic at the time, and in the years since, there have been many times I have chuckled when I've seen a dog owner, strong and muscular, out walking with her Boxer. Or the tough, mean-looking man leading his Bull Mastiff.

And then there are the stories of how you begin to act like the people you hang around with. If you spend all your time with people who gossip, chances are, you will be a gossip. If you spend all your time with people who share and give, you too will probably be a giver.

People can be funny creatures. Whether they look like their dogs, or act like their peers.

We reflect others. Others reflect us.

So the big question is this:
Who do you spend time with, and how will it manifest?

I read a Bible verse the other day. It was in the book of Acts.
Peter and John were teaching life and love to people and there was a healing of a crippled man.
The leaders of the time arrested them, wondering on whose authority they could say and do the things they were saying and doing. Upon answering, Peter spoke boldly of the healing power of Jesus.
The leaders were amazed.

Here is where my eyes were caught; where my heart sped up; where my eyes widened; where wonder filled my thoughts ... it was their response.

It began with, "The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures."

And the picture was set in my mind. Ordinary men. No special training.
Yet a man was healed. Yet they spoke with powerful words. Yet they showed people the path of hope and salvation.
They knew something deeply. They knew Someone intimately.

And the words that really grabbed hold of me? The game-changer?

"THEY ALSO RECOGNIZED THEM AS MEN WHO HAD BEEN WITH JESUS." (Acts. 4:13, NLT)

They recognized ("acknowledged formally; perceived clearly") them as men who had been with ("had identity with; belonged with; on the side of; characterized or distinguished by") Jesus.  *

There was an intimacy here that was unmistakable.
There was a knowing.
They not only walked with Him.
They not only talked with Him.
They spent time with Him.
They knew Him.
The kind of knowing that ran deep and influenced their very actions.
And Jesus rubbed off on them.
They began to look like Him.
Not the hair; not the physique.
But the character.

The big question ~
     Who do you spend time with, and how will it manifest?
turns into the big challenge ~
     Be recognized as one who has spent time with Jesus.

(*Meriam-Webster dictionary definitions)