The last few days photos of our youngest grandson have been showing up on my memory pages. He just celebrated his 7th birthday and it’s been fun to look back at his first few weeks of life.
I love babies!!
They are so pure and so hungry. They eat all the time and make no apology for it. They have a God-given instinct to know that they must eat, and they let the world know it. Their feedings take priority.
“Be like newborn babies who are thirsty for the pure spiritual milk that will help you grow and be saved. 3 You have already found out how good the Lord really is.” I Peter 2:2-3 CEV
Yes, we need to be like babies – sincere, innocent, with an overwhelming desire to grow – to drink spiritual milk (the Word) and learn of the Lord’s goodness.
As we feast on milk we grow and come to a point where we are mature enough to enjoy solid food, as the writer of Hebrews put it. Growing is natural, it’s good, it is proof that we are healthy and strong.
“People who live on milk are like babies who don’t really know what is right. 14 Solid food is for mature people who have been trained to know right from wrong.” Hebrews 5:13-14 CEV
Sometimes babies, and adults, just need a drink of water and not milk. It keeps us hydrated and all our organs functioning well.
We also need to come for the living water that only Christ can give.
“Jesus answered, ‘You don’t know what God can give you. And you don’t know who I am, the one who asked you for a drink. If you knew, you would have asked me, and I would have given you living water.’
11 The woman said, ‘Sir, where will you get that living water?…
13 Jesus answered, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. 14 But anyone who drinks the water I give will never be thirsty again. The water I give people will be like a spring flowing inside them. It will bring them eternal life.’
15 The woman said to Jesus, ‘Sir, give me this water. Then I will never be thirsty again and won’t have to come back here to get more water.’” John 4:10-15 ERV
Water and milk are both a necessity of life. When babies need to eat, they cry out. They really have no other way to signal that they are hungry.
When was the last time we cried because we were hungry for the sincere milk of God’s word or the living water that only He can give? Jesus made us all a promise.
“Jesus said to them, “I am the Bread of Life. He who comes to Me will never be hungry. He who puts his trust in Me will never be thirsty. 36 I said to you that you have seen Me and yet you do not put your trust in Me. 37 All whom My Father has given to Me will come to Me. I will never turn away anyone who comes to Me.” John 6:35-37 NLV
When we come to Him, hungry and thirsty for the life He gives, He will never turn us away!