Spiritual Maturity

 "When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.  When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me." 1 Corinthians 13:11

It's always amazing to me how hard we work at getting it right with God.

As a child, I understood sin and knew we could never escape its power.  On bad days, I pictured God reading my innermost thoughts and shaking his head as if to say "that's going to cost you".   I mean, I always felt justified getting angry whenever I felt wronged by a friend or family member so how could I, at the ripe old age of 10, escape his wrath on my road to ruin?

But a funny thing happened on the way to spiritual adulthood.  I received God's blessing in the form of two wonderful daughters.  It was at this point in my life things became perfectly clear.  No matter how well they behaved or misbehaved, my love for them never changed nor was it ever diminished.  Up until this point I always felt you had to earn God's love.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Works alone don't open the gates of heave.  Acceptance of God's unending love holds the key.



And since we cannot be separated from sin, God sent his only son to prove that nothing we do can ever separate us from his love.  God is the perfect parent.  All we have to do is accept the love he bestows in us through Jesus.  Sometimes the most obvious answer is the most difficult to grasp.

G.K.


This was from the St. Mark Lenten Devotional , 2005