There are expectations
Reasonable expectations , that one would grow up as one ages, as years roll by.
But some people never grow up. While others have gone on to strong meat, this kind is still subsisting on milk.
The result: no development.
Year after year after year you look for some change that should normally have happened. Not finding it we lament: We have a little sister, and her breasts are not yet grown. What shall we do for our sister on the day she is spoken for? (Song of Solomon 8:8)
Disappointment
They seem to have hit some kind of plateau in their development that leaves them uninteresting, jejune.
Embarassment
Yes, under-developed little sisters could be an embarassment
(To be honest over-developed little sisters could also be an embarassment – for different reasons. Howsoever titillating this topic may be, our scope precludes a discussion on this matter. So we shall look steadfast , turning neither to the right nor left, indeed resorting to bridles if need be, in case we are unable to restrain our prurient instincts!)
Are we losing sight of our focus by reason of these needless distractions?
About time we got our act together.
What is the status of your spiritual development? Moving purposefully towards maturity or staying hopelessly in desultory stagnation?
Is your life purpose-driven or quite pointless?
Have you got anything to show for your growth?
Read what the apostle Paul says about himself in relation to growth: When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.(1 Corinthians 13:11, King James Version)
Notice the words put away.
A child will be perfectly acceptable in a Donald Duck T – shirt.
A grown man in like attire will cut a sorry figure.
You can just about tolerate a brat walking about with squeaky shoes that light up on every step (look at the parents, beaming with pride!). In a man, it will be perfectly insufferable; you begin to feel a sense of relief that you are not related to that person by marriage!
I had a class-mate in engineering college, who as a child, was a model for Bourn Vita. I don’t think he lived it down through the five years of college, once the news came out!
Yes, in times past we might have nursed grievances, stroked prejudices, petted peeves.
Schadenfreude used to be absolutely delightful!
Why, we in India might even have been haughtily trotting about on a high horse with a heady notion of caste hierarchy that put us at the very top of the pyramid.
The Lazaruses of the world begging for a piece of bread falling from our table were shooed away with careless contempt.
And we played the fiddle when Rome was on fire (or was it simply a case of watching with satisfaction the telecast of the Capitol being stormed by rioters let loose by our intransigence!)
Oh, so many other things – childish, wicked, unbecoming, unrighteous even outrageous
And there comes the word from Paul again: Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice. (Ephesians 4:31 KJV)
Put away and put on. Doff and don
Further:
“Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God…. (Hebrews 6:1)
Hey, that sounds like the formula we want for spiritual growth, doesn’t it?
Do you crave for maturity? There’s more than a hint here:
“The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature”. (Luke 8: 14,15)
“Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil”.(Hebrews 5:13,14)
But there are times, when we do need to be childlike:
“Brethren, do not be children in your thinking; yet in evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature”.(1 Corinthians 14:20)
“Be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves“(Matthew 10:16, KJV)
But in other aspects,
“we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming“. (Ephesians 4:14)
Pray, to what end?
“until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ………………….. but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ. ” (Ephesians 4:13-15)
Yes, grow up……….like Jesus!
“And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52)
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