I have two pot plants in my office. They are from each of the two groups of young people I’ve had the pleasure of leading through Confirmation in the time I’ve served the Greenock Parish. Each year we buy small plants from a nursery and re-pot them in one of our Confirmation sessions. I then give the young people the challenge of looking after their plant during our time together in Confirmation and hopefully into the future. Like all plants, looking after them involves giving them sunlight, water and maybe a bit of plant food.
I like to do this with our confirmees because faith is something that grows. Faith isn’t static or inanimate like plastic flowers or an artificial plant. It’s a living thing that gives us life as we trust in God’s good and grace-filled promises to us in Jesus. Challenging our young people to take care of a pot plant is an illustration of the way we need to take care of our faith. Just like we can care for our plants by giving them sunlight, water and fertilizer, it’s important for us to take care of our faith so it can be healthy, grow and produce fruit.
The Gospel reading for the First Sunday after Christmas, Luke 2:41-52, tells the story of Jesus’ parents taking him to Jerusalem for the Passover festival when he was twelve years old. After the festival, they accidently left him behind when they started their journey home and then found him in the Temple three days later deep in conversation with the religious leaders. The reading ends with a verse that we can easily overlook but is actually really significant: “Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favour with God and all the people” (Luke 2:52 NLT). Different English versions of the Bible translate this verse in slightly different ways. Some make it sound like Jesus was growing taller physically, some give the impression that he was turning into a nice young man, while others can sound like God and people really liked him.
When I look at the Greek New Testament, I get a different impression of what it means. Luke 2:52 seems to me to be saying something like, “Jesus grew in wisdom, maturity and grace in relationship with God and people.” Jesus was twelve years old at the time of this story. He was moving from childhood into the teenage years and towards becoming an adult. During this time, he was growing, meaning he was progressing or advancing. He was growing firstly in wisdom, learning how to live in ways that are right and good. He was growing in maturity, which can mean he was getting ready to produce good fruit like a mature plant. He was also growing in grace, discovering God’s unlimited and unconditional love for himself, as well as showing grace to the people around him. This was happening in his relationships with God and other people as Jesus grew through his teenage years into adulthood.
This verse can be important for us because it gives us a blueprint for ministry with the young people in our lives. The teenage years are a vital period in anyone’s lives. We are growing, advancing or progressing, from being children towards adulthood. During that time, we are working out who we are, where we fit, where we find our value, and what our purpose is in life. Most teenagers work out these big questions of life shaped largely by the media, social media, and their friends. The foundations laid by parents is still crucial, but a lot of influences come into play which can shape the identity, belonging and purpose of our young people.
Our local church community, the family of faith into which our young people were baptised, can have a significant influence on the growth of our teens into adulthood. Luke 2:52 gives us an idea of what that influence might look like. Just like Jesus grew in wisdom, maturity and grace, we can think about our ministry with our young people as providing a community where they can grow in wisdom, maturity and grace. We can help shape the lives of our young people, whether they are our children, grandchildren or young friends, in advancing and progressing in their understanding of how to live in ways that are right and good, preparing to produce the fruit of God’s goodness in their lives, and in both experiencing grace in their relationship with God and extending grace in relationship with other people.
I hope that exploring how we can be this kind of community will be a conversation we will continue for years to come. However, helping our young people grow in wisdom, maturity and grace begins with each of us growing in wisdom, maturity and grace along with them. When I look at the pot plants in my office, a growing plant is a healthy plant. If the plant stops growing, then I get concerned about its health. When it seems like God’s people stop growing, to be honest I get concerned for our health. With each new circumstance we face in life, we have the opportunity to grow, to advance or progress, in wisdom, maturity and grace, as we learn to trust Jesus, find hope in him and love others the way that he loved us.
As we approach the start of the New Year, whether you are a person who likes to make new year’s resolutions or not, please consider how you might be able to grow in wisdom, maturity and grace in 2025. Just like a plant needs sunlight, water and air to grow, staying connected with Jesus provides us with what we need to grow in our faith as well. Regularly reading God’s word and listening to his promises to us in Jesus, talking with him honestly in prayer, and offering and receiving support from brothers and sisters in the faith in Christian community are some of the key ways that we can grow in wisdom, maturity and grace. If you want to explore what this might look like, how we can be growing together as a faith community, how this growth can make a positive difference in our lives, or how we can work together to shape the lives of our young people, please contact me. This isn’t something we can do alone, but when we are growing like Jesus grew in wisdom, maturity and grace, then we can help each other grow, and the younger people of our church can see the difference spiritual growth makes in our lives and our relationships.
I’m not sure what I’m going to do with the plants in my office while I take leave for three weeks in the new year. What I do know is that if they are going to stay healthy and growing, I or someone else will need to take care of them. Our faith is a living thing, and as a living thing we need to take care of it if it is going to grow. As we stay connected with Jesus through his word, prayer and faith community, we can grow like Jesus in wisdom, maturity and grace. And as we grow, maybe we can help our young people grow as well.
More to think about or discuss:
- What do you do to take care of any plants you might have? What happens to your plants if you don’t take care of them? What happens when you do?
- What do you think it means that ‘Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favour with God and all the people’ (v52 NLT)? What do you think that might have looked like for teenaged Jesus?
- How might you be able to grow in wisdom, maturity and grace in your life? How might you be able to help a young person in your life grow in wisdom, maturity and grace? How might our church help you to do either or both of those?
Pastor Eugene Online 
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