“For my part, brothers and sisters, I was not able to speak to you as spiritual people but as people of the flesh, as babies in Christ.” 1 Corinthians 3:1
There he was…Ant-Man. So one of my favorite new things is an digital picture frame. It has lots and lots of pictures stored on it and every few seconds a new picture shows up on the screen. It is like a memory machine as picture as a picture reminds me of things and people from the past—both distant and recent. Most of the pictures are of our family. Even better, it has a feature that allows the clan to share pictures with Judy and me. That way even though I missed a certain event, I can still see it through pictures.
One of my favorites is a picture of my oldest grandson, Ethan. The picture was taken when he was five years old and he was dressed up for Halloween. His costume for that year was Ant-Man. Now if you don’t follow Marvel comic superheroes then you probably don’t know who he is. That’s ok because all you really need to know is that he is one of their super heroes and that year he was popular enough for Ethan to choose to look like him.
As the pictures rolled across the screen of my digital frame, that morning when I saw Ethan dressed up as Ant-Man, it caused me to pay special attention to other pictures of him as the pictures rolled by. From the time he was really young until now when he is on the high school basketball team—the pictures told a story. He is growing up and what came to mind was the things that he used to really like are now fading memories. You see he is nearing fifteen and trust me the thought of him dressing up on Halloween as Ant-Man are long, long gone. Now he is thinking about things like getting his learners permit in just a few weeks.
Ethan is growing up. It is a good fact of life. It is a normal fact of life and it should be a lesson for all of us—especially when it comes to our spiritual journey. You see, like Ethan grew up physically so God intends for all of us to grow up spiritually. When we first become a Jesus follower we are like a spiritual babe. In fact, it is no accident that Jesus said that to go to heaven we had to be “born again.” The important thing to remember is that while we are babies when we trust Jesus—God wants us to grow. So if we have been following Jesus for a while and we are still walking around in our “Ant-Man” costumes—well something isn’t quite right.
Paul wrote to the Corinthian church and told them, “For my part, brothers and sisters, I was not able to speak to you as spiritual people but as people of the flesh, as babies in Christ.” The truth was they weren’t spiritually growing. They were stuck in the rut of acting and living like spiritual babies. You see, God honors “childlike faith” but He doesn’t want us to act childish. Too often we act like spoil kids of the Kingdom instead of the warriors He wants to be. So what do you say—warriors or spoiled kids? The word from the Word is we need to grow up and act like the mature believers God wants us to be. It’s time to leave Ant-Man behind. Need a little help? Don’t worry—the One who made us and saved us is ready to help. He’s got this. Bro. Dewayne
Grits with Grace 