Thursday, January 1 Become full-grown in your understanding.​—1 Cor. 14:20.

[Áine]

Thursday, January 1

Become full-grown in your understanding.—1 Cor. 14:20.

 

Few events bring more joy to a married couple than the birth of a healthy baby. Yet, even though parents love their precious newborn, they do not want him to remain an infant permanently. In fact, they would be seriously concerned if he did not grow. Similarly, Jehovah is happy when we take our first steps as followers of Jesus, but He does not want us to remain spiritual toddlers. (1 Cor. 3:1) Instead, he asks us to “become full-grown” Christians. In the Bible, the Greek word translated “full-grown” can also mean “mature,” “perfect,” and “complete.” (1 Cor. 2:6) We become full-grown, or mature, as Christians when we grow out of spiritual infancy and become spiritual men or women. Of course, even when we have reached that goal, we should never stop advancing spiritually.—1 Tim. 4:15. w24.04 2 ¶1, 3

[New World Explorer]

Jehovah is happy when we take our first steps as followers of Jesus.

But He does not want us to remain spiritual toddlers forever.

Jehovah does not look at us and say, “Oh good, they’re still crawling.” 😉
Instead, he invites us to grow up spiritually.

[dljbsp]

“Become full-grown in your understanding.”—1 Corinthians 14:20

 

There are some things we understand with our mind long before we ever understand them with our heart. We can repeat the words. We can explain the teaching. But the meaning stays just out of reach—until life places us inside the experience.

That is what happened to me the day my son was born.

 

He is my firstborn. Thirty-five years and a week ago, on December 21, I became a father. Leading up to that moment, I had feelings that confused me. I talked to him. I listened to him. I felt him kick. I knew he was real. But I could not honestly say that I loved him yet. I hadn’t met him. I hadn’t carried him. And that troubled me, because I thought I should feel something more.

 

Then he was born.

 

The moment I saw him—that moment—I fell in love. It wasn’t gradual. It wasn’t learned. It arrived whole, complete, undeniable. I did not decide to love him. I simply did.

 

And in that same instant, something else happened.

 

I finally understood what Jehovah gave.

 

I had always known why Jehovah gave his Son. I could explain the ransom. I could quote the scriptures. But standing there as a father, holding my own child, the reality of the sacrifice opened in a way it never had before. There is not a thing, not a person, not a cause—nothing—for which I would give up my son. And yet Jehovah did exactly that.

 

“For God loved the world so much that he gave his only-begotten Son.”—John 3:16

 

That day, I did not learn something new. I became someone new. I had to be full-grown to understand it. I had to be a father to comprehend it. Only then could I feel—deeply and personally—the measure of Jehovah’s love.

 

That understanding was not painful. It was beautiful.

And it changed the way I have loved ever since.