A couple of years ago my daughter was working an evening shift at her job when I received a call from her. It was a very cold evening, and a customer had come into the store and told the cashier that a very small kitten was huddled up along outside the building. From its size, it was probably not weaned yet, and chances were it had gotten separated from its mother. My daughter called to relate the story and then follow up with a “Please dad, please – can I bring it home tonight so that it won’t freeze tonight and die?”
I didn’t want any other animals in my home. We already had too many in my estimation, and I had jokingly told my family that the next addition had to contribute to the per capita income of our family or it wasn’t welcome. Now here I was on the phone with my teenage daughter doing her best to pull on my heart strings to get me to let her bring this kitten home. I had no desire for this little kitten to enter my house. I had 3 girls plus my wife there. I live in the estrogen pool. It would be all oohs and ahhs with a cute, soft kitten.
I asked her if surely there wasn’t someone else there who could take it and care for it. I reminded her that I had been pretty adamant about no more pets. She countered with the fact that I like cats, and that this kitten may perish if we didn’t take it in for the evening. After several tugs, she had found the right string to pull. As much as I didn’t want this cat in my house, I didn’t like the thought of it dying. I reluctantly gave her permission to bring it home – but only to keep it from dying. It was not becoming a new pet for us, and she was responsible for finding it a home ASAP.
Kitty Comes Home
She brought it home that evening, complete with a doll size bottle and a container of formula. As we suspected, it wasn’t weaned yet, and needed to be nursed. Moreover, this kitten was a female orange tabby. Of course my girls were happy to take turns holding the kitty, feeding the kitty, petting the kitty, etc. The reality was that we weren’t going to be able to find the kitten a home until it was weaned. Naturally, they wanted to give her a name. This non-pet was quickly getting the pet treatment, and was soon christened “Nala”. The cat I didn’t want now had a name, its own dish, and plenty of daily attention.
After a few weeks the cat was weaned, and my daughter made good on her promise and found Nala a new home. I was glad to see her move along, but I didn’t regret taking her in for those few weeks. She was small and helpless. She needed nurturing so that she could begin to survive on her own, and in time, flourish. When she left our house she was healthy, litter box trained, sociable, and well mannered.
We gave the kitten milk while she was small, so that she could go through the process of nursing and weaning, at which time she would graduate to solid food. That is nature’s way – the growth from a nursing baby to taking in solid food and growing to maturity.
Moving On From Milk
In 1 Peter 2:1-3, Peter spoke of the need to desire the milk of the Word of God, so that we could grow from it.
2 Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, 2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby,3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.
Just like that kitten needed milk to nurse on in order to grow to the next stage of development, we need to do as well. That kitten desired the milk we were providing. It wanted it on a consistent basis. The fact that Peter encouraged his readers to desire the milk shows that they could lack that desire as well.
When our children were babies we initially fed them milk, and as they grew we added things that had more substance to fill them up. Eventually they graduated to baby food, and then solid food from the table. This wasn’t some regimen we forced on them. We moved along this path because as they grew they were no longer satisfied with just milk. They wanted more. Their bodies were causing them to want more in order to satisfy the needs they had that growth was bringing.
That little kitten did the same. After a few weeks the milk was no longer enough. We went to soft food, then later to solid food. She ate till she was full, and she went from a little waif of a kitten to a very pretty cat. She grew as she was intended to.
Why Growth May Be Lacking
I’ve found over the years that when I have waned in my understanding of God’s Word or have become stagnant in my personal growth, it often is tied to my desire to grow. I’m not talking about just desiring to know God more. I did, and many others in the same place do as well. Peter noted in verse 1 that those desiring to grow needed to lay aside malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and all evil speaking. In 1 Corinthians 3:1-3, Paul addressed this as well:
3 Dear brothers and sisters, when I was with you I couldn’t talk to you as I would to spiritual people. I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in Christ. 2 I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren’t ready for anything stronger. And you still aren’t ready, 3 for you are still controlled by your sinful nature. You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn’t that prove you are controlled by your sinful nature? Aren’t you living like people of the world?
Paul told the Corinthians he was unable to speak to them and feed them solid food because they were still controlled by their sinful nature – jealous of one another and quarrelsome. Their attitudes and conduct kept them from being at a place where they could hear and accept more of God’s Word and His ways.
This takes us back to you and me. If I want to grow in God, it requires me to desire growth to the point of looking at myself in the light of God’s Word and making the changes that light requires of me. I have to desire change – not just information. Paul wrote of this process in 2 Corinthians 3:17-18:
17 For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.
Transformation, Not Information
Growth is about transformation, not information. Transformation to be more and more like Jesus – in thought and in deed. That’s our goal. As I go into this New Year, that is my desire – to experience an ongoing transformation of who I am into who He is. Growth brings greater responsibility, and also greater ability. Happy New Year! May yours be full of growth, success, and fulfillment.
