This weekend the world has been talking about the birth of a royal baby, and before I left for work on Saturday morning I was watching the television news and witnessing the media scrum outside the hospital. At that point nobody knew at what stage of labour the Duchess of Cambridge (Kate) was in. There were the usual ‘experts’ to whom reporters could turn to pad out the wait with waffle. I had to go off to work before the birth was announced. On the way back home after work in the early evening I called in at the home of the leader of the fellowship I belong to. Coincidentally, his wife has also recently given birth to another child, a boy, who was fast asleep when I was there. The next youngest of their four children is only about eighteen months old. Not so long ago he was as small as the bundle of joy that was in his mother’s arms. Now he seems big and mature in comparison. Yet it would be most surprising if this was not the case and he hadn’t grown in size or was unable to walk. The same should be equally true in the spiritual realm, but how often is it not the case? Too often we hear of Christians who rarely read the Bible from one Sunday to the next. Yet even Paul had Christians in his day that he reckoned that were dependent on spiritual milk and not solids.
It was only after I got home that I had heard that the royal baby had been born. It was only after the details were being repeated that I realised the baby princess had actually been born before I left for work. It was just that nobody outside the hospital knew and it must have surprised them. The only guide they had was Kate’s previous pregnancy which led them to expect a wait until early evening before a public announcement was given. The past is not always a good guide to the future. Too often the secular media speak in ignorance when they talk about spiritual things. They are on the outside unaware when God is at work on the inside of people. They have rationalised God out of existence so they are capable of getting things wrong, sometimes very wrong.
David Rose. 2015.