By Sarah Lehman
For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant Hebrews 5:13Eighteen months ago I embarked on a journey of discovering the joy of food along with my son Elijah. I watched him go from milk to meat, vegetables, fruit and even the occasional ice cream. What I didn’t expect when I began this whole nurturing process was that God would show me so much about my own relationship with him through it.
First we had breastfeeding. How beautiful! How intimate! What an amazing time to just take each other in and study each other’s faces. I got to see the helplessness and beauty of Elijah as I watched him drink. He was able to see love, acceptance and provision from me as I let him drink from me as often as he had need (which turned out was very, very often). I loved just holding him and singing over him as he drank, often drinking himself to sleep.
But then time stretched on and he became bigger. He learned to crawl, to stand up and to walk. Something else was happening too. His needs were changing according to the new growth of his body and to his new activity level… all of a sudden he required more food… a different kind of food. He needed more meat, vegetables, and grains. What an exciting time he had entered! Now I love to give him new foods, I love that I can be creative as I come up with something new to serve him, I love waiting to see the expression on his face as he eats what I put before him (or doesn’t eat depending on his mood).
The best part of Elijah eating solid food is this: my son can now sit up at the table and fellowship in a whole new way with my husband and me. When we were nursing it was very quiet with little dialogue. It was a good time to learn trust and closeness but not necessarily for me to share who I am or for me to find out who he is. It was a beautiful and intimate time, but much different from the time at our dinner table. I love how my son now joins in the conversation with my husband and I. When Tony and I laugh Elijah joins in, sinking back into his chair while putting a piece of cheese or fish into his mouth. I know it will get better as our family grows. Elijah will not only relate to us as parents but also fellowship with his brothers and sisters at the table.
If he had never stopped nursing, if he had continued only drinking milk, it would have not only stunted his growth physically and mentally, it would have stunted his relationship with his family.
Now, apply this all to your relationship with God. Being a baby in Christ is a wonderful time. We learn to drink the milk he gives us, we find out He is worthy of our trust and our dependency upon Him. However, there comes a time to “calm and quiet our souls, like weaned children” (Psalm 131:2). There is a time to come to God not as a hungry child just trying to be fed and then leave the room, but to be able to come to him as a humble child who wishes to really know her Father. To do this we must get past the point of drinking only milk and move on to more solid food. We must be able to sit up at the banqueting table God has prepared for us and eat. EAT! EAT! There we can really enjoy the full spectrum of food that God provides.
How do we mature? How do we move on from just milk? It is pretty simple. We must gain knowledge of God as we dig into His Word. Really, really dig. We must long and desire for His Word as we ask the Holy Spirit to give us light in it. We need to learn to calm and quiet our spirits before Him and spend time in prayer…time in the Spirit. This is how we learn to eat meat.
So here’s to becoming full at the table of Christ, here’s to having a whole new level of fellowship with each other and, more importantly, with our Father, over some solid, soul food.
Thank you Jesus.
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