I breastfed twins. Let’s just put that out there in the open so that we know what we’re dealing with right now. I was responsible for keeping two babies alive with milk that came from my breasts. It was an exciting and exhausting experience. Because I didn’t stay home with them, I was often pumping so that they were well fed when I wasn’t around. When at work I would stand in the bathroom and use the baby changing station as a table to pump and watch Netflix (that was my favorite part about pumping at work). I’m not sure if you know what an electric breast pump sounds like, but let’s just say you do for the sake of the rest of this story.
One day when I’m in the restroom pumping, a little boy walks in with his grandmother. They’re talking and she’s trying to encourage him to hurry, but he keeps asking, “what’s that sound? Grandma, what’s that sound?” She tells him over and over that she doesn’t know and to just hurry up. Then he exclaims – because he’s totally figured it out, “it sounds like a cow!” I couldn’t help but laugh out loud in the restroom that day. His grandma said, “Ah! I just figured out what it is.” And I made a comment about how that was a really close guess. They flushed, washed hands, and left the restroom. I still crack up thinking about this day.
Peter, after telling us who we are now that we have been made new in Christ is telling us to live like it. He says to rid ourselves of malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander then makes reference to my very situation: breastfeeding. “Like newborn infants, desire the pure spiritual milk, so that you may grow by it for your salvation, since you tasted that the Lord is good” (1 Peter 2:2). What?! He just said that just like little babies who live off and long for and desire the milk from their mama’s breasts, we should desire pure spiritual milk. We should live off of and long for and desire the Lord’s Word and His leading in our lives. We don’t stay in this infant stage always. Instead, the pure spiritual milk grows us in our salvation. We aren’t left as babies. We mature. Why? We tasted the pure spiritual milk and saw that the Lord is good. He is good. He is the one who holds onto us. He fills us. He matures us in Himself. It’s not something that we do, but something that happens because we are in Him and trusting in Him for our salvation.
Christ sacrifices for us. We live as people who depend fully on His sacrifice and long for what He provides.
From the Altar to Forever 