My! Have You Grown?
We were welcoming kids on the first day of Vacation Bible School. Some of the kids come every year to VBS, but go to church (or not) someplace else. So, while I might remember who they are, they sure don't look the same as they did last year. They've changed. They're tall! Some of them are taller than I am. (OK, a lot of them.) They've grown.
"And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature," is Luke 2:52's way of saying the boy Jesus changed and grew. I wonder if the people who only saw him once a year recognized him. "My! How you've grown!" they might have said to him. I wonder if he thought, "Yes, that's what kids do."
From our birth, the natural thing for all of us to do is to grow and change - to increase in wisdom and stature. It's so natural we don't notice it when we're young. It's just what we do. But when we get older, increasing in wisdom and stature – growing and changing in positive ways – takes effort. Without intention, our minds and bodies turn away from the natural, God-given ways, and instead of increasing, decrease. We change, subtly, slowly into people we don't recognize and never intended. "My! How you've grown!" turns into, "My! Have you grown?"
Looking back at where you were a year ago, have you grown? Have you grown in wisdom? Have you grown to look and act more Christ-like?
- James
[Get twice-weekly devotionals, Sunday messages, and more delivered direct to your email inbox at http://jamesmctyre.blogspot.com]
No comments:
Post a Comment