My daughter is now a whopping 31lbs, and as the doctor has shared with me, she has pretty much caught up in terms of percentile growth and where she should be. You see, this makes me marvel because she was just 3lbs 4oz when she was born. When I look at her, while some may see a petite little girl, I see God’s love and mercy for me and how much she’s grown in that time.
I’m telling you her current weight compared to her birth weight for a reason. Average birth weight of babies are born around 7.5lbs, but the range is between 5.5lbs to 10lbs, with only 5% born out of that range, according to whattoexpect.com.
Imagine having to go from birthing your child to carrying them around at their current weight? Having to carry around 31lbs all the time. I think that’s why God in His infinite wisdom, gave us little babies and not grown kids. That’s just one of the reasons, anyway. Our muscles are able to grow and flex over time as we have to carry around our little ones as their weight increases. We don’t go from 0 to 30 in a heartbeat, we gradually work to get there, albeit some faster than others.
I’d like to think that’s how faith works. It doesn’t happen all at once. It’s like God stretches our spiritual muscles a little at a time. Sometimes He gives us little things that are easily manageable and we can ‘lift’ easily. But by learning to trust, our muscles are strengthened a little at a time. Other times, He gives us big things, but because He knows that He’s already stretched our spiritual muscles, we are able to endure. Remember also that 31lbs is a lot to carry all the time. And so it is with faith as our muscles are growing. Sometimes we will get weary and need a rest. That’s when we should stop, put the thing down (whatever is exercising your faith) and claim God’s perfect rest. Only then will we be rejuvenated again to further carry on and fight whatever battles we are facing.
Lord, thank you for exercising and stretching our faith muscles. Help us that each day as we grow older in You, that our spiritual muscles get stronger and we are able to carry whatever we need to because of You. And when we get weary of carrying on, help us to seek You and to find Your perfect rest.