On "The Ballad of Jody Baxter" and Growing Up

Photo credit to Baim Hanif on Unsplash.

When we were little, we all wanted to grow up. I remember telling my parents multiple times that as soon as I was grown up, I was going to stay up all night all the time. I remember them laughing, and telling me that I probably wouldn't do that once I was actually grown up. But I was convinced otherwise.

"Of course I'll stay up! Why would I want to go to bed if I didn't have to?"

Now I'm older, and man, I need to go to bed. I'm ready for bed long before bedtime. I wake up some mornings and I wish I could roll over and go back to sleep.

When I was a child, I didn't realize that when I grew up, I would need sleep.

And when I was a child, I didn't know how much I would miss being little.

We all think we want to grow up. We want to be in control of our lives, in control of our emotions, in control of everything that happens to us. But growing up is realizing that you'll never have control. Growing up is realizing for the first time just how small you actually are.

The world is a big, scary, frightening, beautiful, broken, hurting, searching, wonderful, horrible place. It's the very definition of a paradox----something that seems to contradict itself.

And how I miss being little.

The song The Ballad of Jody Baxter by Andrew Peterson is based off of the classic book The Yearling, a poignant coming of age story about a boy named Jody Baxter who has to grow up, face the world, and leave his childhood behind. In the song Peterson sings about how he can relate to Jody, how as a teenager he also was forced to grow up and see the world the way it is.

I miss thinking the world was a happy place. I miss not knowing about all the evil. I miss innocence. But as we grow older, that innocence will turn to ignorance. There comes a time where we have to put on our 'graduation cap' so to speak.

We can face the world, and we can face it as grown ups with the hearts of children. We can continue to see the beautiful things in the world while accepting the existence of evil and determining to always fight against it. Like Billy Joel said,

"Some people hope for a miracle cure

Some people accept the world as it is."

It's hard for us Jody Baxters of the world. But Christians, we can do both. We can hope for a miracle cure, the miracle cure of Christ and his love for us, and through that love, we can accept the world as it is.