Growing Up
“Rich Man. Poor Man. Beggar Man. Thief. Doctor. Lawyer. Merchant. Chief.” That’s how the rhyme went in my day, and you used it when you were counting the cherry pits on your plate, the petals on a daisy, or the buttons on your shirt or blouse. The one you on which you ended counting was, of course, the one you would end up being. What in the world, what in heaven’s name, were you going to be when you grew up? It wasn’t just any question. It was THE great question. That is still the great question.
I have been doing the same thing for some 54 years and contemplate no immediate change, but I like to think of it still as a question that is wide open. What are you going to be, you and I, when we grow up? Not what are we going to do or what profession are we going to follow, but: What are we going to be?
The answer? Holy.
That’s what we are going to be if God gets His way with us. No matter how old we are or how much we have achieved or dream of achieving still, we are not truly “grown up” until this extraordinary thing happens: until holiness happens. Out of darkness, we are called into His Marvelous Light. We are to be filled with the light of Christ so we can be bearers of that light into this world of darkness (1 Peter 2:9). That’s what it means to be Holy. I’ve seen a few such faces in my day, and so have you.
Are we going to be rich, beggars, thieves, or, in the case of most of us, a little of each? Who knows? Who cares? Only one thing is worth caring about and it is this: “You shall be unto me a Kingdom of Priests and a Holy Nation.” 1 Peter 2:9 You have tasted of the kindness of the Lord, St. Peter wrote, and, ultimately, that is the kindness and holiness to which we are each of us called, so that by God’s grace we may “grow up to salvation” at last.
