We are sometimes amazed at how fast our children have grown up. One day, they are holding on to your hands learning to walk, and the next they are running in a cross country race. Of course, this is our hope, that the children will grow up, and that we will as well.
In the new movie Young Messiah, the writers tell a story about how Jesus lived as a child. As I shared with a friend, any movie about Jesus’ childhood has to be based in part on speculation, because we know so little. Luke tells us more than any of the other gospel writers about Jesus’ birth and his childhood. We know for sure that he obeyed and that he grew. So Jesus was not already complete in his wisdom and power when he was two or three. He had to grow up. So do we.
In my observation, maturity has not been necessarily connected to chronological age. We all know people who are “wise beyond their years.” On the other hand we know people who act like children well into their later years of life. We either grow up or we are afflicted with the Peter Pan syndrome saying, “I won’t grow up!”
As we watch the circus of our current electoral cycle and see candidates behaving in infantile ways, we may ask, what should a grown person look like? Remember when singer Rich Mullins sang to Jesus, “You were a baby like I was once, but were you a boy like me? I grew up around Indiana, you grew up around Galilee. And if I ever really did grow up, I’d want to grow up and be just like you.” Like Jesus we can grow not only in physical stature but in wisdom and in God’s grace. Let’s grow up into full-grown little Christs!
