To Grow Luke 2:39, 52

Before reading this you should read Luke 2:39,52

Having Obeyed the Law in everything, Mary and Joseph returned to Nazareth, which would be the Lord's home until He started Hs official ministry. One question I have always had is what was Jesus like as a teenager into adulthood? Was he picked first for dodge ball(I'm not really sure if dodge ball was invented at this time)? Did all the other teenagers in the neighborhood look up to him? Was he popular or was he a fringe kid? Luke reports that he developed physically, mentally, socially and spiritually. We know Jesus worked with Joseph in the carpenter shop (Matt 13:55 and Mark 6:3) and apparently ran the business after Joseph died. (Just a thought How awesome would it be to own furniture made by Jesus. How many people could say you see this couch yeah the son of God made it. Got to be honest it would be pretty epic). Joseph and Mary had other children during those years Matt. 13:55-56; John 7:1-10). How was Jesus as an older brother?? Luke gives us only one story from Jesus youthful years. Joseph and Mary were devout Jews who observed Passover in Jerusalem every year. Three times a year the Jewish men were required to go to Jerusalem to worship (Deut. 16:16) but not all of them could afford to do so. If they chose one feast, it was usually the passover; and they tried to take their family with them, for it was the most important feast of the Jewish calendar. People would travel to this feast in caravans, the women and children leading the way and setting the pace, and the men and young men following behind. Villages often traveled together and kept an eye on each other's children. At age 12 Jesus could have easily have gone from one group to another and not been missed.

They had gone a day's journey from Jerusalem when they discovered that Jesus was missing. It took a day to return to the city and another day for them to find him. I wonder what was running through Mary's and Joseph mind when they couldn't find Jesus? Mary's rebuke brought a respectful but astonished reply from Jesus; "Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had t be in My Fathers house?" Jesus was affirming His divine Sonship and His mission to do the will of the father. Even at the age of twelve, Jesus was moved by a divine compulsion to do the Father's will. To my teenagers that read this you are not the church of tomorrow you are the church of today!!! does your life bring glory to the fathers will.

Jesus grew in a balanced way without neglecting any part of life, and His priority was to do the will of His Father. He knew how to listen and how to ask the right questions. He learned how to work, and HE was obedient to His parents. Jesus grew up in a large family, in a despised city, nurtured by parents who were probably poor. The Jewish religion was at an all-time low, the Roman government was in control, and society was in a state of change. Yet when Jesus emerged from Nazareth, eighteen years later, the Father was able to say of Him, "Thou art My beloved Son; in Thee I am well pleased"(Luke 3:22). May the Father be able to say that about us!!!!!