Learning to Walk

During the summer I had an opportunity to spend a few days with our one year-old granddaughter, who was just learning to walk. Her steps were tentative at times, and at first she did about as much falling as walking, but she kept trying and learning. Then, one day, I saw her forget about trying and just delight in walking - almost running - when she was brought to a toddler's splash pad area in a pool complex. She was so intrigued with the gentle bursts of water on the splash pad floor, that she moved from one to the next, seeming to forget that walking had been difficult for her just hours before. She had a new goal that made what had been a challenge more of a joy.

This autumn our church theme is Learning to Walk with Christ Daily. There is a lot of meaning packed in those few words. Learning, of course, carries the message that we all have a lot of growing to do as Christ's people, growing that we recommit ourselves to in the fall as we sign-up for service ministries, or choose classes and groups for study and sharing, or recommit to prayer and worship. Walk is often used in the Bible as a synonym for live, but emphasizes the day-by-day decisions and routines and surprises that weave themselves into the way we use our time. And, of course, the focus of the phrase is Christ - the One whose new life and love draw us forward to want to live more fully, more freely, more in community with others, in respect for the world, in relationship with God.

Learning to walk with Christ is the goal that continually shapes us to become more than we have been - to become the new creation we long to be and were designed to be.