125 Baby Food

My daughter brought up an interesting subject the other day. Each child we have had has been introduced to food in a different way. My oldest was doted on with all the right baby foods specially prepared and then even home made and home jarred ones because, of course, we were new parents and it was what people do. With our middle child, we slackened a bit again as parents do, but still offered a mix of baby food along with whatever we were eating. Then along came my son. The third by birth, but the fifth under five in our house at the time. There wasn't a jar of baby food within miles of our home. As he came to the age of eating he ate what we ate. Maybe mashed up a bit or diced, but he ate it. The observation made by my sage daughter was that progressively each of the kid's food habits now were less and less picky based off of their upbringing. The pickiest eater now was the one that was fed the most separately as a baby. The one that ate what the rest of us ate is the least picky now.

It was at this point in the conversation that epiphany struck. It is with love and good intentions that we separate our children from ourselves in a church service. It is with relevancy in mind that we tuck our youth away and think the way they should be spiritually fed a certain way. It is acceptable in our minds to have a separate time for the eldest to meet to enjoy worship in the way they prefer. What "monsters" are we creating in this separation? If we require spiritual feeding the way Jesus said we do, then what picky little snobs are created by putting each part of the church body in it's own place separated from each other. It seems like it might be in this separation that we are actually killing off or separating the life source in which God intended the body of Christ to function. What would this look like if guided correctly? Discovery of God's good character would happen together and across the body. The more complicated spiritual food might be mashed up and explained by the more mature, and in itself growing their own understanding. Parents would interact with children. The joy of children and their discovering hearts would inspire the mature or complacent. Each would have a chance at patience. Each would have a chance at growing and being grown. Each would have responsibility and value. We would seek out, in each other, the hidden truth God is revealing, because he does this to searching people in individual ways.