Growing Pains

Inch by inch,

Row by row,

Gonna make this garden grow;

All I need is a rake and a hoe,

And a piece of fertile ground;

Inch by inch,

Row by row, Someone bless these seeds I sow. Someone warm them from below, 'till the rain comes a tumblin down.

Life and growth are amazing to experience and to observe. Natural, normal, fascinating, constantly changing and yet staying the same. Seeds becoming sprouts, sprouts becoming saplings, saplings becoming trees, trees bearing fruit. And it's not just limited to seeds and trees, but encompasses every aspect of life. Animals, people, ideas, understandings, all growing, all developing, all becoming something more and yet staying uniquely the same.

That is not, however, to say that the process is always easy. Because growth involves change, it also includes transitional moments that may seem awkward, or unsettling, or even painful at times. The process is not always understood when we are in the midst of it, or when we are observing others going through it if we have not been there yet ourselves. Sometimes, because it is new and unfamiliar, it is even resisted and/or feared. And yet, it is inevitable, because all living things grow.

How do we understand and navigate this process? How do we support each other along the way? How do we embrace what God invites us to discover? That's what Pastor Ken invites us to begin to consider in this sermon. If you would like to listen to the sermon again, or perhaps for the first time, you can access our sermon library by clicking here. (Please allow a few hours from the time it is recorded until it is posted). Or, you can access the live stream version by clicking here.

Luke 2

(NIV)

40 And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was on him.

52 And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.

1 Corinthians 13

(NIV)

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes,what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.