He was thirteen. His mother told me so. It was a public place and he apparently had not yet found his volume control. Everyone around heard him incessantly complaining to his mother about school, his classmates, his teachers, and his friends and about the food in front of him. It was if his royal highness was not been honored enough by all of the above. I did not have to ask his age his mother volunteered it when she looked at me in embarrassment. Usually adolescents are embarrassed by their parents. This time the situation was reversed.
Sometimes when one sees a family with an adolescent at the mall the adolescent is walking several feet behind the family hoping we will not notice they are with those “old” people. Actually this is quite healthy. The child is trying to find his or her own identity and does not yet have the maturity to be his self or her self in the presence of the authority figures in his or her life.
Sometimes we act as if we are embarrassed to acknowledge Jesus. Fortunately for us like a good parent He understands and promises to acknowledge us. Revelation 3:5 reads as follows, “He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels.” He knows that just like the thirteen year old will grow up so will we.
Written by Roger Bothwell on August 10, 2006
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