Pure Milk of the Word
Saturday, March 18, 2023
Then away with all malice and deceit, away with all pretence and jealousy and recrimination of every kind! Like the new-born infants you are, you must crave for pure milk (spiritual milk ...), so that you may thrive upon it to your souls’ health. Surely you have tasted that the Lord is good. 1 Peter 2:2, 3, NEB.
No picture intrigues me more than one showing an infant looking deeply into the eyes of its mother, and with the same tenderness, the mother’s searching gaze at her nursing baby. Studies have shown stronger bonding between the breast-fed baby and mother than the bottle-fed infant and mother.
Humanity has yet to improve on what God has made for the nourishment of human infants. Not only does illness decrease a great deal through the baby receiving the mother’s immunities through her milk, but also studies have now shown that intelligence and development increase. Apparently the brain continues to develop in the breast-fed baby because of chemicals found only in mother’s milk. Scientists have discovered more than 90 elements in mother’s milk that change in strength according to the developing child’s needs.
The mother benefits from breast feeding as well as the child. Breast feeding mothers seldom hemorrhage because of the presence of a chemical secreted during breast feeding. This chemical causes the uterus to contract to its normal size and the now unused circulatory system to the uterus to close itself off. Yet another chemical has a calming or tranquilizing effect on the mothers. Breast feeding is convenient for the mother in that she has no bottles to wash or formula to buy or prepare—thus the cost of breast feeding is extremely small.
Ellen White says, “The best food for the infant is the food that nature provides. Of this it should not be needlessly deprived” (The Ministry of Healing, p. 383).
As I consider all the benefits of the milk that God provided for a baby, I find my mind drawn to the phrase “pure milk of the word” in 1 Peter 2:2 (NASB). What a marvelous God we have, to have provided so well for the needs of infants, whether they be babies sucking at their mother’s breast, or spiritual infants, such as you and I. The “pure milk” found in God’s Word is far superior to the most eloquent human words. Why is it then that we drink so little of this spiritual nourishment?
Are you daily drinking deeply from the “pure milk of the word” for your soul’s health? Why substitute human-made “milk” when God’s “milk” is abundant and free?
No picture intrigues me more than one showing an infant looking deeply into the eyes of its mother, and with the same tenderness, the mother’s searching gaze at her nursing baby. Studies have shown stronger bonding between the breast-fed baby and mother than the bottle-fed infant and mother.
Humanity has yet to improve on what God has made for the nourishment of human infants. Not only does illness decrease a great deal through the baby receiving the mother’s immunities through her milk, but also studies have now shown that intelligence and development increase. Apparently the brain continues to develop in the breast-fed baby because of chemicals found only in mother’s milk. Scientists have discovered more than 90 elements in mother’s milk that change in strength according to the developing child’s needs.
The mother benefits from breast feeding as well as the child. Breast feeding mothers seldom hemorrhage because of the presence of a chemical secreted during breast feeding. This chemical causes the uterus to contract to its normal size and the now unused circulatory system to the uterus to close itself off. Yet another chemical has a calming or tranquilizing effect on the mothers. Breast feeding is convenient for the mother in that she has no bottles to wash or formula to buy or prepare—thus the cost of breast feeding is extremely small.
Ellen White says, “The best food for the infant is the food that nature provides. Of this it should not be needlessly deprived” (The Ministry of Healing, p. 383).
As I consider all the benefits of the milk that God provided for a baby, I find my mind drawn to the phrase “pure milk of the word” in 1 Peter 2:2 (NASB). What a marvelous God we have, to have provided so well for the needs of infants, whether they be babies sucking at their mother’s breast, or spiritual infants, such as you and I. The “pure milk” found in God’s Word is far superior to the most eloquent human words. Why is it then that we drink so little of this spiritual nourishment?
Are you daily drinking deeply from the “pure milk of the word” for your soul’s health? Why substitute human-made “milk” when God’s “milk” is abundant and free?
Used by permission of Health Ministries, North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists.
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