His parents didn’t know what to think. “Son,” his mother said to him, “why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been frantic, searching for you everywhere.”
“But why did you need to search?” he asked. “Didn’t you know that I must be in my Father’s house?” But they didn’t understand what he meant.
Then he returned to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. And his mother stored all these things in her heart. Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and all the people. [Luke 2:48-52 (NLT)]
Do you suppose Mary and Joseph “grounded” Jesus (or the 1st century equivalent of grounding) once they got back to Nazareth?
In the gospels, Jesus seems to jump from babyhood to manhood in one fell swoop so we rarely think of Jesus as a boy. Except for this story of his staying behind in Jerusalem at the age of twelve, we know nothing of his youth. Since he was a boy, however, it is quite likely that he had skinned knees, bloody noses, bumps and bruises. He probably had stomach upsets and fevers; he knew what it was to be hungry and tired. He played and laughed and cried and experienced the full range of human emotions. In spite of being the Son of God, he was obedient to his earthly parents. In spite of being the Prince of Peace, he lived in obscurity in a humble home in a small village. His tears were dried by Mary as she held him in her arms and he learned the art of carpentry at Joseph’s side. And, through the years, he “grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and all the people.”
