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In Which Meat Starts with Milk.

I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it...I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.  So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. (1 Corinthians 3:2, 6-7, NIV)


I hope I am not taking this completely out of context, but in these verses I see a beautiful order from God and a real life picture He gives us to help us understand.  I think this will all makes sense if I just keep typing!


One of my favorite qualities of God and of the Word He has given us, is the almost contradictory nature of its simplicity and depth.  The stories and in fact the whole message of the Bible boils down so simply that a young child can understand it.  Yet the mysteries of the Truth is never fully understood even by those who devote their entire lives to study.  The more we spend time with the Word, the more He draws us in to deeper understandings of His wisdom and plan. 
We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature...we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. ...but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. (1 Corinthians 2:6-7 & 10, NIV)
The illustration of this is how as infants we start with milk and as we grow and mature, our nutritional needs and palate become increasingly more complex.  As I feed Grayson his simple rice cereal (praying that he will someday move beyond the "chicken nuggets and cheese" phase his sister is stuck in!) I am reminded that as our bodies and tastes mature, we never outgrow the need for nourishment.  What astounds and delights me, is how God allows me to dish out spiritual milk and uses those opportunities to give me meat.  I think I could go deeper with this metaphor (and perhaps someday I will), but it's getting late and my brain is not functioning as well as I need it to.      


One specific example is when I write the dramas for VBX. We look for simple ways to make the stories relate-able.  And for the young, young kids, it really is about boiling it down to it's simplest form.  The story of Noah is about faith.  The story of Jonah is about obedience.  God made me. God loves me. God wants to be my friend.  But the application of these simple truths in my life are so far reaching that I am always humbled and moved to worship.  


We are to approach God with the faith of a child. But I praise Him because it does not end there.  Just as a child's tastes grow as he does, so God continues to bring us into a deeper, more beautiful knowledge of who He is and what He plans for us. But always, meat starts as milk.          

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