Just Because You're Grown Doesn't Mean You're Done

Baby of my new Au Pair family. He thinks I gave him my phone, haha!
In November I went to a Freikirche German church service with my first Au Pair family. I didn't understand most of the sermon ... and yet I got the gist of it, and enough of that to be inspired to write this post.

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food—Hebrews 5:12

I think most of us are familiar with both the actual life concept and the analogy that those who are young need something that grows them, and those that have grown need something that sustains them toward strength. 

Often, churches talk about this without really talking about it. What is the difference between the milk and the meat? And which is that one needs for themself? And how do you know it's time to be "weaned" from the milk and to start participating in a healthy, wholesome meal that only an adult can stomach?

What is milk? I believe it is the laws and instruction of God. In fact, the scripture above plainly says that. If you will, the Old Testament is the milk, though I believe there's a lot of meat in that, too.

What is meat? The meat is living by those laws, having them stamped on one's heart (Psalm 119:11), and following God beyond His law in His perfect will as Yeshuah (Jesus) asked us to do, and as Dietrich Bonhoeffer exemplified in his own life when he chose to follow his maker above his conscious. And no, I'm not going to say the New Testament is the meat, as I believe that was another dose of milk. With caution to not be crude, I am going to say I believe all of scripture is the milk and how we live it leads toward the meat. 

Scripture was designed to instruct and nourish us into life. It is the milk. A Christian who follows God so closely that he communes with God and knows God's will is eating of the meat; of living out the heart of His words. 

I believe most people have only ever sipped on the milk and are now struggling to knaw over meat they are incapable of chewing.

We are the light of the world; we are meant to be a faithful, inviting candle that shows the way toward something desirable and good, not a glaring flashlight pointed in someone's face that causes only pain and confusion.

And before anyone decides that this means they no longer need to read the Bible because they are now a mature follower of God, I want to share the analogy from the German service I attended.

The pastor showed us several containers of flowers. 
The cut flowers in a vase of water, healthy-looking. 

The cut flowers in a vase with no water, nearly dead. 
The rooted flowers in a pot full of rich soil, more hearty than the cut flowers.  
The rooted flowers with dry soil, wilting with hardly any life left even at their roots. 
All four of these examples, I believe are of the Christian who have been weaned from the milk and had been eating meat. 
We forget an important concept. Just because you are no longer a baby that doesn't need milk doesn't mean you are not still in dire need of sustenance. If you don't eat that meat, you will die. No, you won't become a child again, you will wilt and wither away. 
Babies need milk. You need water. So drink it, and drink it often. 
But not just water. You need roots, too. Roots that are deeply ingrained into the word of God so much that His words echo through your thoughts like a breath through your lungs. Roots that reach out far and wide to those who are also like you, sustained by the rich soil of God's will. 
It is good to grow high into all there is, for you to have many leaves that see and know all. It is good to share with everyone, to love all. But those roots are important. Grow them wider, deeper, farther out. If the soil or surroundings are contaminated, transplant if you must. But don't cut yourself and kill your soul just because of others' toxicity. 
So. 
Drink your milk until your legs are strong and steady.
Grow your roots deep and wide in Godly soil.
Taste the meat and run and live. 
Sustain the life God gave you, and eat your meat and drink your water, and run on those legs full of bones strengthened by whole milk. 
Share your thoughts, or opinions, or whatever you like to call those things that pass through your consciousness ;D

If you want another deep read go check out my post DeLABLE Me over at the Girl Who Doesn't Exist.