Friday, December 18, 2015

Like obedient children,


Like obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires that you formerly had in ignorance

When I was taking a summer lab course during college, one of the supervisors made a comment that has stuck with me all my life. “I would rather be a responsible child than an irresponsible adult.”  When I shared that with my mom, she was not at all pleased with the idea.  Given the context, her son in college, apparently preparing for adulthood, spouting some nonsense about staying a child...

 I would like to think of an obedient child as a responsible child.  Such is our relationship to our God.  As Jesus teaches us to open the Lord’s Prayer, “Our Father, who art in heaven…”  The obedient child gives us two things to think about.  There is the child.  Jesus is God’s Son, the firstborn of us all as we are made children, no longer servants, of the Living God.

Then there is the word ‘obey’.  We, freedom loving Americans, don’t take kindly to that word.  It was not welcome in my wedding vows.  But this is far different.  We are not battling the sin of hierarchy.  We are taking our relationship to God seriously.  To truly do the work of Jesus, we must be as Jesus was, obedient to our Father in heaven.

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