Never Outgrow

I was thinking about two of my old pencil cases.
How I wish I had saved them.
Something wonderful in first grade may not be so wonderful in the older grades.
I wish I had those pencil cases now for nostalgia’s sake.

My grandchildren would love them.

I was thinking about my first pencil case.
It actually looked like a pencil.
It was soft and had a zipper right below where the eraser was supposed to be.
Upon unzipping the eraser area, I could drop pencils down into the point of the case.

It had a little carrying handle.
I thought it was the best thing in the world.
I was carrying a large soft case that looked just like a #2 pencil.
It held just enough pencils that any first grader would need.

The pencil case was just for show.
It really didn’t serve any utilitarian purpose.
Oh, but how I loved it.
How grown up I felt having my own pencil case that looked like a pencil.

I got older, but not so old that I wanted just a practical pencil case.
I remember the yellow plastic case that had a map of the United States etched on the top.
On each side of the rectangle there were dials that I could easily turn with my thumbs.
One dial showed the name of the state and the other dial showed the name of its capital.

I learned all my states and capitals that way.
When I lifted the yellow lid, I could see the two cardboard dials on the underside.
On those dials were the names of all the state and all the capitals.
Ingenious.

We so easily dispose of things we outgrow.
We go through a rite of passage and then leave so much behind us.
We never think that maybe we should keep that special something.
We probably hear our mother’s voice in our ears telling us that we can’t keep everything.

My first lunchbox had Mary Poppins on the front.
Full confession: I just found that same lunchbox on Ebay and purchased it.
The seller wrote a sweet note and placed it in the shipping box.
I emailed her back and told her that I had this lunchbox and wanted to show my granddaughters.

My children tease me when I find special toys at a thrift sale or on Ebay.
I freely admit that I have purchased a few things that have been long gone.
Nostalgia is a strong motivator.
Nostalgia, with a healthy dose of self control, of course.

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.  (Galatians 6:9)

We never outgrow God.
He remains the same, while we grow and change each year.
It seems as if God is expanding right along with us.
In reality, God is not expanding, rather our knowledge of Him increases with maturity.

John Piper once wrote:
You never, never, never outgrow your need for this gospel. You don’t begin the Christian life with this and then leave it behind and get stronger with something else. God strengthens us with the gospel to the day we die.

We will never outgrow God, or His Word, or the Gospel.
We need to preach the Gospel to ourselves to strengthen us and sustain us.
We are never too old for God’s Truth.
It is not something we dispose of because it no longer suits us.

We will never be too old for the Gospel.
We will never be too old to read our Bible.
We will never be too old that we stop going to church to hear the Word of God preached.
God’s Word and His Truth are timeless.

We need God.
We need God’s Word.
The Gospel is not nostalgia; it is our lifeline.
We must cling to the Gospel with tenacity all through our life.