How Did This Happen?

A very short time ago, there was this:

Today, I took that same kid on his eighth grade graduation trip.  How did that happen?

He is not taller than me yet, but only because he has not yet hit that growth spurt.  It is coming.

As we drove home, and his friends hollered and teased each other in the back, he quietly began to ask me for a clearer picture of what is going on in "our country".  What the situation is.  What the history of this new church God is planting has been.  What effect these new tensions will have on it.  And in the end, what danger we would be in where we are.  Likely none, I told him, but the rare possibility exists, so I told him of the new safety steps we've taken.  He nodded.

Then this one who just yesterday weighed barely six pounds told me, "Don't worry, mom, I won't be frightened.  Anyway, it would be a honor if we were to suffer for Jesus' sake."

When did he suddenly grow up?