October 30, 2013 (Wednesday)
A funeral was held last Sunday for a 20-year old lady in Baltimore, Maryland. It was an unusual service, because the lady never grew out of her infancy. She remained a baby all her life. Doctors named her condition “Syndrome X” because they did not know what to call it. As far as is known, hers is the only case in the world. Our hearts go out to the family, that includes her parents and three sisters.
In spite of tests of all kinds, diagnosis was impossible for researchers, who are still hoping that DNA tests will result in advances in medical science and the cure for other diseases.
None of us has ever encountered people who remained infants all their life. But we have met many Christians who have remained spiritual infants. They were meant to grow, God wanted them to grow, but they have chosen to stay the same, refusing to grow.
Here’s what the Apostle Paul said to the spiritual infants in Corinth: “Dear brothers, I have been talking to you as though you were still just babies in the Christian life who are not following the Lord but your own desires; I cannot talk to you as I would to healthy Christians who are filled with the Spirit. I have had to feed you with milk and not with solid food because you couldn’t digest anything stronger. And even now you still have to be fed on milk. For you are still only baby Christians, controlled by your own desires, not God’s. When you are jealous of one another and divide up into quarreling groups, doesn’t that prove you are still babies, wanting your own way?” (1 Corinthians 3:1ff TLB).
A popular phrase, repeated many times every day and instantly recognized is “Grow up!”