Good morning,
For those of us in the western world it’s the time for caps and gowns, long dry speeches, graduation congratulations and parties for family and friends. In our part of the world graduations begin at kindergarden then at 8th grade and again at 12th grade and for some 2 or 4 years later from a university and for even fewer students, graduate degrees that could go from 3 to 6 years later leading to a masters or a doctorate of some sort or other. Whenever they get done, what do they have to show for all that work? For some very little. All their years of work have left them with lots of information, but often a mind and heart that still thinks and reasons as a child. The process has gotten them from one level to another, but what really fills their minds and hearts are childish things that keeps them living in a world of makebelieve. For all too many, their dream world comes crashing down when there are no jobs, they get little or no respect and the training they have endured hasn’t really prepared them for the reality of paying bills and living with the realities of life.
In this passage to the Corinthians, Paul is encouraging us to break from this childish pattern of life and learn to live a life based on a growing loving for God and a maturing love for others. Of course, it’s natural for little children to live in a world of self centered plans, but the Lord longs for us to grow up thinking more like Jesus and less like those who have no hope and no future. Even though we learn to spend time with our Lover and read the Bible faithfully, we will still not see things clearly because our minds and hearts are clouded with fear and sinful patterns. It takes time to put God’s principles to the test of real challenges and the frequent bad choices we make, to learn what God really means by what he says. What’s different for us is that some day all the little pieces of information that make some sense to us now will become a perfect picture of a beautifully designed plan. What a wonderful day when we will understand why our teacher took us to this or that place, brought sorrow and pain, and seemed to be so slow in carrying out his incredibly complex plan for our lives. On that wonderful day we will know as God knows and our hearts will be at rest for eternity. Now that’s a real graduation!
1 Corinthians 13:11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12 Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
Roy Wisner
