All princes start as frogs, Part 2

There is now a one-inch tall prince sitting on our window sill. Since the transformation that happened last week, I've looked at him and chuckled to myself, rolled my eyes, and dismissed him a few times.

But Sunday night at church we studied Ephesians 4, and I keep going back to it, and today when I saw Mr. Knightly on the window sill, he seemed to symbolize something new...

"So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work." - Ephesians 4:11-16

Why does Jesus give us different gifts and roles? To equip us to serve.
Why does he equip us to serve? So we can be built up together.
Why are we being built up together? To reach unity in faith and in the knowledge of Christ, to become mature, and to grasp the whole measure of the fullness of him.

This is what we are living for! This is something that won't happen fully until Jesus returns, but it is something we are promised and we take steps toward. As followers of Jesus, we should be investing our lives in using our gifts for service and building each other up and speaking the truth in love...

And life gets hard sometimes. Even though we want to be whole and mature and stable, we are still just infants, so easily tossed around and knocked down by influences, emotions, people... this world. We are small and broken and incomplete, and sometimes in the battle we get weary. Kind of like that prince hidden in the shell of a frog, sitting in water... we see and feel the change happening, we know it's coming, but it is slow, and we're not there yet.

But there is a promise. And the good news about God's promises is that they all come true. One day, we will grow to maturity in Him; one day we will all reach unity of faith; one day we will stand unwavering; one day we will be exactly who we were created to be, as individuals and as one body together - whole, supported, strong. What a day that will be! I can't wait...

Until then, keep "bubbling" and "molting"... keep doing what we are called to do here and now, knowing that every day of faithfulness brings us closer to completion in Him.