About His Father’s Business

The child Mary held in Bethlehem grew within the life of a family. The One who had come to bring us home first knew a home among us, with its familiar voices, daily work, and care passing from one person to another. We are told little of those years, but we need not hurry through them as though His coming only mattered once He was grown. He was here, living the human life He had entered.

Mary watched Him grow. The hands she had wrapped within His clothes reached for things, learned their use, and became the hands of a boy. He grew in wisdom and stature. The One through whom all things were made was living within the passing of days, receiving the care of the people He loved.

We have followed families through so much time, watching children arrive whose futures lay beyond the understanding of those who held them. Now we are watching this family, and the wonder reaches further than we can follow. Jesus belongs within their household, yet His life carries a purpose that began before their own. Mary had heard something of that purpose before His birth. There was still so much to discover.

Each year, the family went to Jerusalem for Passover. When Jesus was twelve, He went with them. Our road brings us back to the city where David had built his altar and Solomon had raised the house of the Lord. Generations have passed since we stood there, and now the child born in Bethlehem walks among the people gathering to worship.

When the travelers began their journey home, Mary and Joseph believed He was somewhere in their company. Then they could not find Him. They searched among relatives and acquaintances before turning back toward Jerusalem. We can draw close enough to recognize their fear: they had been entrusted with this child, and they did not know where He was.

They found Him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening and asking questions. Those who heard Him were astonished by His understanding and His answers. Mary approached Him with the sorrow of their search still upon her. Why had He stayed behind? His father and she had been looking for Him.

His answer brings us to something we should carry with us: did they not know that He must be about His Father’s business? Within the family we have been watching, another relationship comes into view. He speaks of His Father with a belonging that reaches beyond the household in Nazareth. The purpose that brought Him among us is finding expression in the voice of a twelve-year-old boy.

Mary and Joseph did not fully understand. He went home with them and remained obedient to them, while Mary kept these things in her heart. The daily life of the family continued, but we have heard something now that will accompany us along the road. The child we met in Bethlehem has spoken of His Father’s business, and we find ourselves returning to the question we carried long before His birth: What would God be willing to do to get us back?