After months of waiting, she has arrived! Our third grandchild was born a few days ago in Bainbridge, and it goes without me needing to say that we are thrilled to have that precious little girl in our family. It will be both a joy and a privilege to see little Addyson Grace grow and develop. Even though her body is a tiny six pounds, she had no problem immediately grasping our attention and affection.

As I observe my daughter taking care of Addyson, I am quickly reminded that much is required to keep a newborn healthy and content. That precious little one is totally dependent on others to meet her needs, and even though her needs are many, taking care of her is gladly done because of her parent’s love for her.

It was certainly purposeful that our Lord chose to refer to becoming a Christian as being born again. To come to Christ by faith is to be born into His spiritual family. To stress the importance of this spiritual transformation, Christ responded to Nicodemus, a religious leader of that day, regarding spiritual life with this declaration: “In reply Jesus declared, ‘I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again’” (John 3:3, NIV).

That was certainly a most strange and hard to understand idea to Nicodemus, but it opened the door for the Lord to tell him more about God’s provision of everlasting life. And we can rejoice that God’s provision in Christ is for all who will believe in Jesus Christ’s death on the cross as payment for the sins of humankind, and His resurrection from the dead as our assurance of His victory over Satan.

Just as Addyson was not born full grown physically, neither are we mature spiritually when we come to Christ. He makes us ready for Heaven at the moment we receive His forgiveness and His presence into our lives, but from there we enter into a lifetime of spiritual growth as we, with God’s help, strive to become more like Him.

It is easy for us to realize that babies need lots of care and nurturing to enable them to grow physically and mentally strong, but we seem to have trouble acknowledging the need for taking care of new Christians. As God’s Church, we have the responsibility not only to do our part in leading people to Christ, but to also help them to grow spiritually by guiding them away from things that will stall their spiritual development and leading them to the things that will support their spiritual health.

A new baby in the house brings with it all sorts of changes in the home and an abundance of inconveniences, but it is worth all of it in order for new-born life to progress toward adulthood. There is no price too high for loving parents to pay to facilitate the well being of their children. We, as God’s Church, have the responsibility of enduring the hardships, costs and inconveniences of helping infant Christians grow in their faith in Christ, so they become mature Christians.

Since Christ was willing to sacrifice all that He so lovingly did, so we can by faith receive Him as our Savior. The very least we can do for Him as His followers is to give of ourselves to nurture others in their journey toward Christian maturity.