In an earlier era, little boys were often dressed in short pants even for formal occasions. One can see that tradition in some of the formal pictures of the British Royal family. That tradition is mostly missing in modern life. For little boys in an earlier time, the transition from short pants to long pants marked a new level of maturity for your boys. Now days one can see eighty-year-old men in short pants (we just call them “shorts”), and while they may show knobby knees and paler skin, they say nothing about maturity. The question might be, are there any marks of maturity in our world? We have all known young people who are remarkably mature for their age and may have known elderly people who are still rather emotionally immature.
Paul says, “When I was child, I spoke as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man I put away childish ways” (paraphrased). That should be the norm, one would think, but not everyone matches the norm.
How would Christian maturity differ from the maturity that the world expects? What would be the observable marks? If asked, would family and friends observe marks of our Christian maturity? It is a Christian goal to stay childlike, but not childish. We need to be mature enough to go deeper into the faith and into our relationship with God without losing our childlike joy and delight.