And when they had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him.
Luke 2:39-40
We often feel the tension between our humanity and God’s divinity. We feel the tension between His Kingdom come and not-yet come. We feel the tension between the presence of death though death is conquered. It can be quite frustrating and sometimes confusing.
Hebrews 4:15 tells us,
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
Jesus understands the difficulty of the tension. Jesus came as fully God and fully man. Serious tension exists in that position. I can only imagine the tension He felt in Luke 2: He had to grow and become.
We all live in the tension between the promise of God spoken and the promise of God realized. We all have to walk a path of growth and becoming before we get there.
Jesus was born fully God and fully man, yet in His humanity, He had to grow and become. His growth and becoming was described in the same way that His very human cousin John had to develop; Jesus had to grow and become like we do.*
God knows who He made you to be, and that reality is now. However, there is a growth and becoming that must occur in our lives before we step into that calling. Jesus didn’t step into ministry until after the growth, becoming, and a time in the wilderness.
Where are you? Are you becoming? Are you growing? God hasn’t forgotten you. You’re just in the tension that Jesus very much understands.
Today, take a step.
Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to yield to His work of growth and becoming. Perhaps God wants you to feel His comfort and understanding of the tension. Maybe today God wants you to pause and let the process happen.
Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.
Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus.
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*Bock, D. L. (1994). Luke (Lk 2:39–40). InterVarsity Press.
Garland, D. E. (2012). Luke (p. 138). Zondervan.
Edwards, J. R. (2015). The Gospel according to Luke (D. A. Carson, Ed.; pp. 89–90). William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; Apollos.
Liefeld, W. L., & Pao, D. W. (2007). Luke. In T. Longman III & D. E. Garland (Eds.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Luke–Acts (Revised Edition) (Vol. 10, p. 84). Zondervan.
Bock, D. L. (1994). Luke: 1:1–9:50 (Vol. 1, p. 254). Baker Academic.
Nolland, J. (1989). Luke 1:1–9:20 (Vol. 35A, p. 125). Word, Incorporated.