You won’t believe what Jesus said the other day…
I had to be in my Fathers House!
Had To Be!!
I mean we were just frantic…
we had gone up to Jerusalem
just like we always do..
Well after Passover we got ready to come home...
and I thought Jesus was playing with my sister’s boys…
Oh you know how it is with 12 year old boys …
they don’t want to be seen with their parents..
we might embarrass them or something..
So when John showed up for supper
when we got about half way to Sychar..
and hadn’t seen Jesus all day I started to get worried…
I checked with my sister… I checked with her kids…
the neighbors… no one had seen him all day..
That is when Joseph and I really started to panic..
asking every one if they had seen our boy..
you know he really is a good boy….
Then we started retracing our steps
and asking people if they had seen a little boy
about so tall... with a Galilean accent..
It must have been after mid night
by the time we got back to Jerusalem…
then the gates were closed
and we had to wait until morning..
We went back to the place we stayed during Passover…
we went to the temple… we talked to shopkeepers..
we kept calling his name…and praying that he was safe…
Jerusalem is such a big city …
we spent 3 days searching every back alley
and dead end street in the city..
I was almost to the point of wondering
if we would find him at all…
he could have been snatched by one of those slave traders ..
or even worse…
You wouldn’t believe where we found him…
You just wouldn’t believe it..
sitting there in one of the courts in the temple
talking with the teachers of the law..
It was a good thing he was in the temple
because after THREE Days of frantically searching for him…
I couldn’t decide if I wanted to hug him
or just wring his neck right there on the spot…
He has never done anything like this..
I just couldn’t believe he could be so insensitive
and put Joseph and I through all of this..
and then he says..
"Why were you searching for me?"
"Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?"
I tell you I have never been so glad to get back to Nazareth ..
Postscript -
But his mother treasured all these things in her heart.
(LK2:51b-52)
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