Two boys, two scooters, and maturity …

Skateboards, scooters, and bicycles, are common sights in and around San Diego, not just because they’re fun to ride, but they’re ordinary modes of transportation for many people in this city.

So it was no surprise while walking through the Point Loma area a couple days ago that a teenager whizzed by me on a scooter. Just seconds after he passed by, a younger fellow — probably between 10-12 years old — also passed me on a scooter.

While the teen was perched confidently on his scooter as it glided rapidly down the sidewalk, the younger boy was kicking wildly with his left leg in a more animated effort to get his scooter going fast enough to keep up with the teenager, who I guessed was probably his big brother.

The teen was able to spend more time enjoying the ride on his scooter because he was older. His age had provided him with more time than his younger brother to learn the subtleties of accelerating and maneuvering a scooter. He was stronger, so he had more power to generate velocity more efficiently, and with just a few kicks he was gliding with ease and speed. Through lots of practice, he had learned how to master riding a scooter through the city streets with both agility and confidence.

The younger boy was in his learning stages of how to master a scooter, and so he was less graceful, less agile, less powerful in the push of his smaller, weaker leg … but he was learning and he was keeping up, albeit by expending more effort.

I couldn’t help but see a lesson on the process of maturing as shown in the contrast between these two boys on two scooters.

Maturing takes time and effort. We’re not as graceful, or strong, or wise when we start, and it can take a lot of effort to keep up with others who are examples for us. But with learning and practice, with the encouragement and example of “big brother” types, we mature to the point that we’re more agile in life, wiser, more confident, and while we still have to work, we can enjoy the ride a little more.

In maturing, it’s helpful to have those “big brother” (or sister) types to urge us on: “As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend,” Proverbs 27:17.

And the outcome of maturing is a great reward: “This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church,” Ephesians 4:13-15.

Scotty