March 14, 2015: Luke 2:41-52

We encourage you to read this devotion three times a day.  Start in the morning and reflect upon the morning reflection question. Then in the afternoon, read it again and reflect using the noon question for reflection.  For the evening, take time to ponder how this has resonated with you in the day and reflecting using the evening question.  We offer a prayer with each devotion for you to pray or we invite you to pray what is in your heart.

Luke 2:41-52

⁴¹Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. ⁴²And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival. ⁴³When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. ⁴⁴Assuming that he was in the group of travelers, they went a day’s journey. Then they started to look for him among their relatives and friends. ⁴⁵When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him.⁴⁶After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. ⁴⁷And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. ⁴⁸When his parents saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, “Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.”⁴⁹He said to them, “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” ⁵⁰But they did not understand what he said to them. ⁵¹Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart.

Reflection:

       This is the only story we have from Jesus' childhood. In it, even at Jesus' young age, we see His divine side: his knowledge of the scriptures, the authority with which he spoke and his claiming of God as his Father. We also see the very human side of Jesus: not following his parents instructions to stay with the group and his teenage disregard for his parents worry. Even with such stories, it can be difficult to grasp Jesus' nature. How can someone be 100% God and 100% human?

       However difficult it may be to understand, I take great comfort in the dual nature of Christ. How wonder it is to worship a God who knows our human hurts and desires, limitations and losses because God has experienced them in Jesus. As this story shows, God even knows the trials of adolescence.  Whatever trials, celebrations, pain or joy we experience we have the comfort and assurance that God lives life with us: cries and rejoices with us, knows our human pain and delights, and is our constant companion in all things.

Reflection Questions:

Morning: Why do you think this the only story from Jesus' youth in the Gospels? What do you find significant in it?

Noon: What is a situation you are in or have experienced that you felt like no one could relate to?

Evening: How might God relate in a way friends and family cannot?

Prayer: Lord, thank you that in all your magnificent glory you are able to understand even the smallest of our woes. Thank you for dwelling on earth among us. Grant me the assurance that whatever my worry, my pain, or my joy that you share in it, understand it, and experience it with me. Amen