No more baby food

When we go on tour, we always stick with Cake Lady in Bloemfontein. She is one of those nice people who can’t stop doing good. She cooks like my mother used to do and her nickname is not Cake Lady for nothing. When we ask her if we can stay, she doesn’t say yes, she asks another question: What kind of cake should she bake for each of us?

It is a real pleasure to stay there. When we arrive, it is Sunday lunch leg of lamb, potatoes and vegetables. For dessert, a big slice of carrot cake. Then it’s time to light the fire to braai the homemade kebabs. And so it is every day. You have to fast for at least a week to get the scale back to normal.

During that week, your digestive system has to work harder to process everything. Fortunately, fresh yogurt and fruit for breakfast help with this. We are big men who need a lot of energy during the day and therefore we can easily burn the huge amount of food.

However, if you feed a young child or baby such a serious food, it will be difficult for them to digest. Their systems are not yet developed to convert large amounts of food into energy. They have too little gastric juices to digest even a small piece of meat. That is why a baby starts with milk, and then porridge, and then mashed boiled vegetables only.

And by the way, who’s in charge of the Purity baby food recipes, because I don’t know how a baby can enjoy that? But wait, I lose track of my story again.

After staying with Cake Lady last week, I understand the following verses much better: 13… baby milk, when I should have had solid foods a long time ago! Milk is for beginners, without experience in the ways of God; Solid food is for the mature, who have some practice in distinguishing between good and evil.

Why would one still be a baby spiritually? I suspect it’s when Christians don’t study their faith. Every now and then they read a devotional piece or a verse or two from Scripture. Send a quick prayer up, hoping someone will hear it, and then go about your usual lifestyle.

That is not the way to grow your faith. So you keep wondering about your faith and when the wind picks up, doubt overcomes you. Taking others by the hand and helping them through a crisis is certainly not in the cards.

We must set aside much more time to grow in our faith. We must spend more time in the Word of God. We must listen to and observe the men and women of God who are called to teach others. There are many of them on television and the Internet.

A good plate of homemade food is way better than baby food (especially Purity!). There is so much we can receive when we grow in faith and it is so much more enjoyable. Let’s be serious about our faith. Let’s take off our baby shoes and grow in our faith. Later we can help others.

Holy Scripture

Hebrews 5: 11-14

Reflection

Are you still taking baby food?

Are you already consuming solids?

Whats Next?

Pray

Father, I’m done with the baby food. I want to spend more time with you. I want to mean more to others, but I know that then I will have to change the way I live. I want to and I will. In the name of Jesus, amen.