I had to be in
my Father’s House. (Luke
2:49)
Linda just returned from delivering the last of our children
with their children to OAK. The party is over. During Christmastide we retell
the stories of Jesus’ childhood—how it was that Jesus “grew in wisdom and in
stature” (Lk 22:52). As the hymn goes:
For he is our childhood’s pattern;
Day by day, like us He grew.
The last of Jesus’ childhood stories reminds us that, like us, things didn’t always go well between parents and child. They fussed some: “’Why have you treated us like this?’ his mother said to him” (Lk 2:48). At twelve years of age, Jesus begins to follow his own calling. His calling is different than ours—Good Friday and Easter Morning and Ascension Thursday; but there comes a time when every child sets his or her own course. It’s a scary, but beautiful thing to watch. Once again we marvel at how our grandchildren have grown in wisdom and stature; and, particularly how the oldest, no longer a teenager, has become her own person, pursuing her own calling and destiny.
