Christian Counseling Service -- Devotions

The boy Jesus, the boy ...

Tuesday, December 28, 2004

Luke 2:41-52
Every year Jesus' parents went to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. When he was twelve years old, after the Feast was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem.

After three days Joseph and Mary found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers.

When his parents saw him they were astonished. "Why were you searching for me," Jesus asked. "Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?"

Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them.

But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

Rich Mullins writes:

But I was twelve years old in the meeting house
Listening to the old men pray
And I was tryin' hard to figure out
What it was that they was tryin\' to say
There You were in the temple
They said You weren't old enough
To know the things You knew

At twelve Jesus is nearly ready for his Bar Mitzvah. On his thirteenth birthday he will become a "son of the commandment." His rite of passage begins, it seems, in these days spent with the wise men of his people. Mostly asking questions (as he did throughout his ministry), he made quite an impression.

In a letter to our home church in 1992, I wrote:

Christopher will be 12 in December. We have decided to make the year between his 12th and 13th birthday a "preparation" year for a Christian "Bar Mitzvah". There is no established rite of passage for him between boy and manhood, so we are going to create one. We'll read the Bible together during this year and go on several overnight retreats together. At the end of the year we'll have a big party, and officially begin his teenage years and his "age of accountability."

In his song "Boy Like Me, Man Like You" Rich Mullins seems wistful for just such a rite of passage. Talking to Jesus, he wants to know how it was for him:

Well, did You grow up hungry?
Did You grow up fast?
Did the little girls giggle when You walked past?
Did You wonder what it was that made them laugh?
And did they tell You stories 'bout the saints of old?
Stories about their faith?
They say stories like that make a boy grow bold
Stories like that make a man walk straight

What do I do in my life to mark the time, not just "seizing the day" but making it matter, giving it meaning? Our rituals help us with that, as do the questions we ask, as do the prayers we pray.

Not just Jesus, but I too want to know God, to be with him, to be twelve years old in the meeting house, asking every question I can think of. Moving from milk to solid food, from childhood to what comes next, closer and closer to what God made me for.

And You was a boy like I was once
But was You a boy like me
Well, I grew up around Indiana
You grew up around Galilee
And if I ever really do grow up
Lord I want to grow up and be just like You*

*Thanks to Rich Mullins and a great website of all the lyrics of his songs:
http://www.kidbrothers.net/

Devotions Archive

The boy Jesus, the boy ...

Tuesday, December 28, 2004