To be young again…

Much of life is about making decisions. We need to decide on what clothes to wear, friends to have, what to eat, when it’s to late to have a coffee. M any seemingly insignificant and others seemingly gargantuan. Last Shabbat we watched a beautiful young lady walk out an old tradition – albeit the practising by a young woman is relatively recent.
She came to profess her faith in Yeshua as her Messiah. It is because of this faith in the One who laid down His life, because of her trust in His redeeming work, she made a pledge to be true to Him; to honour Him; to live a life in accordance with His ways, His will. His Torah.
Personally, I had never witnessed anything like it. The sect of our faith that most of us come from rarely contains rituals or traditions comparable to a Bat Mitzvah. The closest thing I can recall is a confirmation – which always seemed more about church membership than it did about faith.
It is unfortunate these traditions have been lost by the visual expression of the church. I see great value in recognizing the obvious change in the maturity occurring and as a result the change in responsibility. It seems to me most believing parents treat their child’s growing up in Messiah in the following way:
assume that just because they grew up in a believing house and where taught some godly things, they will end up on the right side of the tracks
It seems to me that most parents don’t want to recognize their wee one is now at the age of accountability and can’t ride their coat tails. In our western society that exaggerates the ideal of the youth, our young adults are encouraged to act like toddlers past an age that used to be too old to be drafted by the army. By contrast, the Bat Mitzvah girl was able to deliver a teaching on her Torah parashah. Amazing.
Last weekend Frank called the Bar/Bat Mitzvah an appointed time…at some point we are called to make a choice. What he provided for his daughter was an opportunity to publicly declare her choice, so there was no doubt. We in attendance promised to help her on her journey.
Call it a milestone, standing stone, line in the sand or whatever you want the tradition of the Bar/Bat mitzvah is one that look forward to providing my daughters…and they are already looking forward to it. Way cool.