God’s Glory Through Jesus as a Child
Luke 2: 41-52
Have you ever seen the movie Home Alone? It IS the Christmas season so you have probably seen it at least once already (and if you haven’t… you need to get on that). But the premise of the movie is that a young boy named Kevin is left behind accidentally while his family goes on a vacation. Halfway across the country his family realizes that he was left behind and tries every way possible to get back to him.
I know that the story of Jesus as a child in Luke 2 isn’t EXACTLY like the one we see in Home Alone, but I can imagine Mary and Joseph were terrified when they realized Jesus was left behind. Jesus in his adolescence wasn’t like Kevin McCallister or any typical middle schooler - he was the Messiah and coming to an age where His unique relationship with God was being revealed.
This stage of life for a young child was when they began to take up their father’s trade - Jesus was a carpenter like Joseph but he was also fulfilling his role as son of God. So when he says that he is “in his father’s house” or “about his father’s business” we should recognize that Jesus was living out not only a common practice of the land, but living into who God has created Him to be. Not only that, but there is a practice of submission that we should feel empowered in just like Jesus does to God the father. Jesus is God in human form, but just like us, comes to the father because he is a child of God. From a young age Jesus models what it means to be a child of God.
Just as Jesus dwelled with the father in this way, we can dwell with God through Jesus. In John 14 it says Jesus is “the way, the truth, and life” . In John 15 we read that “he is the vine and we are the branches”. We are created to dwell with God through Him, his son, and his spirit. Especially on Christmas Eve, we celebrate the access we have been given to the Father because of His son.
Wonder:
How can we learn from Jesus as a child in the ways he dwelled with the Father? How can we dwell with God in our own lives?
