Luke 2:40 – 52, Temple Teachers

So many thoughts and so many ways to deal with this passage, that I cannot decide and I am running late for church. My spirit goes between:

1. Time flies. Now we are here with Jesus when he is 12 years old when he was just 8 days old in our last passage. And in tomorrow’s passage Jesus will be 30. Where do the years go? When I was 12 years old, it seemed like it took f-o-r-e-v-e-r to get from Thanksgiving and Christmas and now that same time passes in a blink of an eye. Are we being good stewards of the time God has given us?

2. Fear. Can you imagine what it must have been like for Mary and Joseph to realize their child was missing, this special gift from God? I was in a panic when I lost my son for 14 minutes in a crowded zoo – I cannot imagine the agony of living through 4 days without knowing my child was safe. Where have we allowed fear control us and rob us of God’s blessings?

3. Out of the mouths of babes. Sometimes it is really those that have not been tainted with the greed and sins of this world that can truly comprehend the greatest of God. They are the ones who are not so worried about whether something could happen, they simply believe that is should. We are called to enter the kingdom of heaven like little children, where have we let ‘reality’ discourage us from a childlike faith?

The one thing this devotion clearly portrays is that Jesus’ parents made his religious education a priority. When we raise up the children of the church in the ways of the faith we give them great gifts. We give them a depth of insight that can take their peers decades to attain. Now, not that our children will always use that wisdom in the ways that we think they should. Case in point, it would have been nice if Jesus had communicated to his parents that he was staying behind for extra scriptures lessons.

Above all, this passage contains one of my favorite verses. It is a verse I have prayed for myself, prayed over my son and every child I baptize or confirm. But it’s power is not limited to just children. May we like Jesus strive during this Lenten season to, “increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man. (Luke 2:52)