Today's readings are 2 Chronicles 34.1-4, 8-11, 14-33 and Colossians 2.8-23.
I witnessed an interesting conversation a while back. At a social engagement where some long-time friends, married couples with children, were gathered, one person observed to the parent of a thirteen year old that he was the father of yet another teenager. It seemed like only yesterday we were welcoming this young man into the world as a baby, but now he's remarkably grown up. Someone else at the party began trying to break down our cultural assumptions that having a teenager means having someone who is a handful of rebellion and poison. Yet neither of the people in the original conversation had intended those connotations. Both of the people have had teenagers before and have found them to be energetic and responsible people, starting to show their adult maturity, growing in wisdom and discretion.
What does this have to do with today's reading? The young king Josiah started realizing the implications of belonging to Israel, God's chosen people, when he was about sixteen years old. Over he next ten years or so he grew in grace and in understanding of what the king of God's people should be like. During those teen years he saw what it meant to be a man of God. And he was full of youthful energy and courage, so it was the ideal time to change how he went about the business of being a king, the calling God had given him.
What do we expect of ourselves? What do we expect of our young people? Do we marvel at the way we mature and grow, standing before the Lord, being conformed into his image? Or do we expect the worst? Let us expect the best, knowing that the Lord is full of mercy and grace. Let us look for great things, knowing that the Lord is using our hands, young and old alike, to reach out to this world, that all may know the reconciliation he has accomplished in the person and work of Jesus.
I witnessed an interesting conversation a while back. At a social engagement where some long-time friends, married couples with children, were gathered, one person observed to the parent of a thirteen year old that he was the father of yet another teenager. It seemed like only yesterday we were welcoming this young man into the world as a baby, but now he's remarkably grown up. Someone else at the party began trying to break down our cultural assumptions that having a teenager means having someone who is a handful of rebellion and poison. Yet neither of the people in the original conversation had intended those connotations. Both of the people have had teenagers before and have found them to be energetic and responsible people, starting to show their adult maturity, growing in wisdom and discretion.
What does this have to do with today's reading? The young king Josiah started realizing the implications of belonging to Israel, God's chosen people, when he was about sixteen years old. Over he next ten years or so he grew in grace and in understanding of what the king of God's people should be like. During those teen years he saw what it meant to be a man of God. And he was full of youthful energy and courage, so it was the ideal time to change how he went about the business of being a king, the calling God had given him.
What do we expect of ourselves? What do we expect of our young people? Do we marvel at the way we mature and grow, standing before the Lord, being conformed into his image? Or do we expect the worst? Let us expect the best, knowing that the Lord is full of mercy and grace. Let us look for great things, knowing that the Lord is using our hands, young and old alike, to reach out to this world, that all may know the reconciliation he has accomplished in the person and work of Jesus.
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Dave Spotts
blogging at http://capnsaltyslongvoyage.blogspot.com
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