Growth in Grace
Scripture Lessons: Colossians 3:12-17 & Luke 2:41-52
“And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor.”
Luke 2.52 (New Revised Standard Version)
Some time ago a friend gave birth to a lovely baby girl. When I visited the mother and her child in their hospital room I was struck by the infant daughter’s tiny fingers, delicate and wrinkled. How fragile this child seemed to me: it was almost hard to believe that my teenage children had once been so small! But now this little girl is pulling her way to a standing position in her crib, and those little fingers can grasp objects with a surprising strength.
The Bible stories about Jesus say virtually nothing of his childhood and youth: two of the gospel portraits of him say nothing about his childhood at all. Yet Luke says that “he increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor.” In other words, he grew up. His body developed, he formed convictions, he developed a powerful sense of compassion, and he slowly revealed a depth of character that we describe as wisdom. Looking at him, people began to see someone who was fully and completely alive.
The Scottish writer, George MacDonald, once said that “if we are not growing, we are shrinking.” The entire Christian life is an invitation to grow as Jesus grew, in loving relationship with God and our brothers and sisters on this fragile planet. We grow by daring to pray bold prayers, by loving the unlovable (and that which is hard to love in ourselves), by stretching our minds to entertain the spaciousness of great visions, and in the daily discipline of caring for ourselves. In all these ways God helps us to grow so that we, like Jesus, may become fully and completely alive.
Prayer: Loving and patient God, help us to grow with grace, so that our lives may show forth your glory; in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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