BABY BUGGY DEVOTIONS

I don't know whether you've caught that several of my devotionals this month started with the word "Spiritual" -- Spiritual Cockroaches, Spiritual Gossip, Spiritual TV Dinners, Spiritual Starvation, and Spiritual Sunscreen! And I can guarantee you there are more to come. No doubt you're wondering what this is all about anyway. Well, I'll tell you.

Umpteen million years ago when I was still a preschooler, I heard an evangelistic message that made an indelible impression on my young mind. More accurately, I should say I heard an evangelistic "illustration" I've never forgotten. The message itself has long been forgotten except for what I've "imagined" it to be!

The evangelist was describing an adult church member who had never developed and was still in infancy. Those were the days when baby buggies were made of rattan I guess you could call it. The curved top could be lowered to cover the baby's face from wind, rain, cold, sun and whatever. When my sister and I outgrew our baby buggy, I inherited it for playing. I spent many hours pushing my dolls up and down the street. Strollers, car seats, etc. were unknown in those days!

The evangelist I mentioned painted a graphic picture of the church pastor spending his time pushing a baby carriage up and down the street with a great, big over-grown baby inside, its long arms flailing out over the sides almost dragging the sidewalk. The evanglist keep moving back and forth across the platform as he spoke, pretending he was pushing a baby buggy, as he told how the baby's large feet were hanging awkwardly over the front end of the carriage. Every so often he would stop pushing his imaginary baby carriage and pick up the over-sized baby bottle the "baby" had thrown on the ground and stick it back in the baby's mouth! The baby, it seemed, had never mastered eating adult food.

I've never forgotten that poignant illustration, and through the years often wondered what the message was really about. I can only assume the evangelist was trying to hammer home the point that there were people in the church who never matured spiritually but remained spiritual babies all their lives!

And that gave me the idea of a devotional book on spiritual babies, a book I refer to as the "Baby Buggy" book! For years I have had scads of ideas already written down, at least the skeletons of ideas. As mentioned above, you've already sampled a few of them. There will be more to come.

Knowing the story behind these devotionals, I trust you will enjoy them even more.

Preacher's Kid