When I was a second grade teacher, I found out I was expecting my first baby just before school started. My principal, not wanting to needlessly alarm parents over the way this would affect my classroom, asked me not to say anything to the children.
As the school year progressed, so did my belly. I looked like I had much more than a basket ball tucked under my shirt.
But a couple of weeks before I was due, when I finally told my class I was going to have a baby, the children were shocked! “You are???” they asked incredulously. They hadn’t even noticed the drastic change to my figure! (Which is why I dearly love second graders.)
Sometimes, because it happens so gradually, we fail to see the things that are growing inside others. And we can get discouraged when they fail to see our own growing potential. But the Lord, who already knew every detail about my unborn baby, knows about each millimeter of growth. After all, he’s the one who makes things grow! And when the time is right, he will birth every new thing that he is growing inside of us.