.....growing

And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus 2 Timothy 3:15

From his prison cell, Paul looked ahead with confidence: the Lord would preserve him unto His heavenly kingdom. But as his own life drew to a close, Paul's thoughts kept returning to the young man who would carry the work forward. We look at the one who received that final letter, Timothy, and at where his faith first began.

Timothy grew up in Lystra, in a divided home. His father was a Greek, and Scripture gives no sign that he shared the faith. But his mother, Eunice, and his grandmother, Lois, were women of sincere faith 2 Timothy 1:5. There were no churches in Lystra in those early years, no Sabbath Schools and no Christian teachers. There was only a mother and a grandmother who opened the Scriptures with a little boy, day after day, and taught him to love the Word of God.

They could not have known what that quiet work would become. When Paul came to Lystra, he was stoned and left for dead, and Timothy may well have seen it happen. On a later visit Paul found Timothy grown, well spoken of by the believers, and chose him as a companion. That child who had been taught the Scriptures at his mother's knee became Paul's "dearly beloved son," a pastor to the churches and the man Paul trusted to carry on after him.

Paul tells us why those early lessons mattered so much. The Scriptures are "able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." Eunice and Lois were not only teaching Timothy stories and rules. Through those pages, they were introducing him to the Saviour. Ellen White gives the same counsel to every believer: "If you would become acquainted with the Saviour, study the Holy Scriptures" Steps to Christ, p. 88.

None of us knows which seeds will grow. A parent reading the Bible with a child, a grandparent praying with a grandchild, or a teacher patiently explaining a verse to young people may feel that their work is small and unseen. But God sees it, and He uses it. Some of the greatest servants of God began with someone faithful who opened the Word to them when they were young.

In his final words, Paul taught us that the Lord will finish what He began. In Timothy's story, shows how work often begins: with the Scriptures opened faithfully in an ordinary home. Growing in grace means drinking deeply from the Word ourselves, and then passing it on to those who will come after us.