A little extra time off this weekend and it was beneficial for rest and for getting a few things done around the house. Thank You, Father, for the restorative time down and for the strength to be productive. I am so grateful that You are always by my side.
Luke 2:41-52 (<<click to read the passage)
I have made reference in the past to some of the scary times when in the course of any given day when I worked at Kohl’s that children would become separated from their parents. From my recollection, there seemed to be as many times when the children found an associate to ask for help finding their parents and as there were times when parents sought out associates to help find their missing child.
Sometimes children were in tears being separated from their parents but the real panic took place when we didn’t know where the child was. The all too familiar “Code Yellow” would be announced as every available associate began to search for the missing child and securing all the exits. Basic identification clues would be passed along, gender, age, hair color, what they were wearing, etc. If it took too long, it could get pretty scary! We always found the child but still, parents were so afraid of all the could-have-beens.
Can you imagine being the parents of Jesus? Now remember this wasn’t your typical 12-year-old boy…this was God’s Son and even from the beginning, many had pointed Him out as the long-awaited Messiah. And they had lost Him!
The Amplified Bible uses the word “anxiously” to describe their search when they first discovered that he is not with them. One thing to keep in mind, most often when traveling to and from Jerusalem for these big events they would travel in large caravans – safety in numbers, you know. And as my Life Application Study Bible states,
“At age 12, Jesus was considered almost an adult, so he probably didn’t spend a lot of time with his parents during the festival.” In these caravans, “The women and children usually would travel at the front…with the men bring up the rear. A 12-year-old boy conceivably could have been in either group, so Mary and Joseph probably assumed that Jesus was with the other one.”
Right up front, none of the three were guilty of any wrongdoing. Mary and Joseph were responsible parents and Jesus was a responsible child. But it didn’t lower the anxiety level having this knowledge.
So, they were already one day out when they discovered His absence. And they didn’t find Him until three days later!
When they saw Him, they were overwhelmed; and His mother said to Him, “Son, why have You treated us like this? Listen, Your father and I have been [greatly distressed and] anxiously looking for You.”
They were rattled for sure! But Jesus wasn’t the least bit ruffled. He had done nothing wrong. He had not deliberately upset them.
And He answered, “Why did you have to look for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house [or had to be occupied with My Father’s business]?”
They really didn’t understand it all but Jesus “was continually submissive and obedient to them”.
In our own relationships with Jesus, we may not understand everything but we can trust Jesus to know what is going on. Even though we may not be able to grasp the “whys”, He does and grasps them in their entirety! We are in the best of care in His hands!
Nov 10th, 2019, Sun, 6:35 pm
