Even a child is known by his deeds, whether what he does is pure and right.
Proverbs 20: 11 NKJV
I came across some commentary this week of how one of the most dangerous creations on this planet is that of a 11 - 15 year old teenage boy. Indeed, my memories of these years often provide me with plenty of reminders of the bad decisions and behaviors I engaged in. I look back upon those days now and wonder how it is that I made it out alive. To say the least, I was a terror not to be taken lightly back then. I now know why parents seem to get gray hair at a early age. During my time in the church I spent some time as a Sunday school class leader with fourth grade kids. I went into this endeavor thinking that because I was younger than the other teachers that these kids would respect me and behave. I was wrong. Typical for children their age, this bunch gave me a run for my money. In the end, I enjoyed my time spent there. So, what is it that makes these teenagers act out for the rest of the world? I believe that it is youth itself. For when I was young, the whole world was in front of me. Each day was another opportunity to discover something else. What about those crazy stunts we used to do? Well, that was just something cool to show everyone else. I don't believe that things have changed much since my younger years, but you might not get that impression by watching tv. Turn on the tv lately and you see countless shows of people doing reckless stunts for recognition and money. The bad behavior inspired show Jackass seemed to inspire a new generation of misbehavior among our youth. Perhaps they're simply carrying on the proud traditions of generations of kids before them.
When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
1 Corinthians 13: 11 NKJV
Another hit MTV series which far too many people have never heard of is Mike Judge's Beavis and Butthead. I rate this program as one of the best animated series of all time. And for good reason, it features two teenage kids as the main characters behaving badly. Beavis and Butthead have done everything from gorging on nachos and soda to stuffing a bowling ball with fireworks and dropping it off of a roof (To which poor Beavis took some shrapnel to his privates}. As a survivor of my own teenage hell raiser years, it's no wonder that I would marvel at the antics of Beavis and Butthead. Back then I was a child, and I spoke, understood and behaved as a child. Has anyone ever wondered just what the early formative years in the life of Jesus were like? One of the closest looks we get into those early Messiah years is in the film Young Messiah. Yet even this film falls far short in my opinion of showing Jesus' early years. As I've mentioned, teenage kids have been misbehaving for generations, so I'm sure the kids in Jesus' day were prone to act out as well. One of the biggest complaints that I have of our bible translations is that we're given far too little information of the formative years in the life of young Jesus. Was He teased by the other kids? Was He prone to pranks on His parents and others? Was He disobedient? All we're told in scripture is that Jesus increased in wisdom, stature and favor {Luke 2:52}. Can we assume that Jesus also engaged in some of the reckless behavior as the other Jewish kids He certainly hung around with? That's a pretty high assumption, but lacking any scriptural help on the early life of Jesus I believe that we can assume that His life mirrored that of the other children of His time. We know that Jesus the child became Jesus the man on His life journey. We can also trust that when He became a man, that His childhood ways became a thing of the past. I guess there is hope for Beavis and Butthead after all.
~Scott~
No comments:
Post a Comment