JESUS

For some time now, I have been intrigued by the story of Jesus and his parents at the passover as recorded in Luke’s gospel chapter 2 verse 41-52.

Looking at verse 41-45 “Every year the parents of Jesus went to Jerusalem for the Passover Festival. When Jesus was twelve years old, they went to the festival as usual. When the festival was over, they started back home, but the boy Jesus stayed in Jerusalem. His parents did not know this; they thought that he was with the group, so they traveled a whole day and then started looking for him among their relatives and friends. They did not find him, so they went back to Jerusalem looking for him.”

We see that Jesus parents assumed he was with them (without being sure that he really was) and they traveled a whole day before they decided to be sure that he was actually with them. This lead to them looking for him among their relatives and friends, but, they did not find him. The story does not end there, we see that when his parents realized that he wasn’t with their relatives, they went back to Jerusalem, and if you read the story to the end, you’ll see that they found him in Jerusalem.

Just like Jesus’ parents, we too, sometimes tend to make this assumption—that Jesus is with us—whereas in reality, we left him behind a long time ago without even realizing it. We carry on with our lives assuming that Jesus is with us, until at some point, probably due to introspection or some nudging by the Holy spirit, we get to realize that we have left Jesus behind. And then, we begin to look for him.

Again, like Jesus’ parents, realizing we have left Jesus behind and looking for him is not enough, we have to look for him until we find him, and we can only find him, when we look at the right place.

So you see, realizing that we have left Jesus behind at a point is good, searching for him, is better, and searching for him until we find him is best!

May we not assume Jesus is with us when he is not
May we search for him, when we realize he is no more with us
We will find him when we search because it is already written, that he who seeks shall find. Amen.