Before getting married I was a deaconess (not a pastor, but another type of church worker, just to be clear). I served at two different congregations over the course of about 5 years. The first congregation I was in owned a child care center and part of my work was to help out there 16 hours a week or so.
You see and hear a lot when you spend 16 hours or more per week with children 15 months-5 years old. They are adorable, energetic, a little crazy, and can be quite funny. I had a funny incident one day while helping in one of the 4 year old rooms. One of the little girls came up to me and started telling me a story about herself. I honestly don't remember the story itself (I wish I did, I'm sure it was a good one), but I do remember how she started her story. She said, "When I was a child..." The reason why I don't remember the rest of the story is because all I could think about after her story beginning was how she is 4 years old, she still very much is a child. Such a sweet, silly, little girl. I was certainly smiling.
We are like that too though when it comes to our faith. We think we are grown up once we finish confirmation or first communion. Sadly, some stop doing anything to grow in their faith after that. We may still attend Bible study, but we are only half paying attention. "I already learned this," we think to ourselves. Sometimes we see that a Bible study is about a certain book or topic and we don't go to that one, because we've already done a Bible study on it.
But here's the thing. We are constantly able to grow. Scripture is too deep for us to get everything the first time around, and most likely you won't get everything the second or even third time around either. "Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!" (Romans 11:33) Neither, one round of reading through the entire Bible nor perfect recitation of the catechism is enough to be all grown up in God. There's just too much to glean.
We may get to a point where we have weaned off of milk and are now to the solid food (although if you look at 1 Corinthians 5 and Hebrews 3, that's not as easy of a task as we may think), but that does not mean we are fully grown up. I remember my little brother wasn't even 1 year old when he started consuming things beyond milk, was he an adult? Certainly not! He was still growing.
We are still growing in our faith. We won't be fully grown up until we reach heaven. We still eat food every day for our physical health, so let us dive into God's Word everyday for our spiritual health. God wants to give you His truth, love, joy, peace! He gives you those things when you read His Word, and even more so when you hear it preached in church! So, grow, grow, grow! Jesus died, so you could be born again in your baptism, and then grow and grow and grow, until you reach full adulthood in heaven! He's given you the food in His Word and in communion!
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