At my high school graduation party I overheard the story of how I was once left behind in a McDonalds in Canada. Wait. What? I know you may need a minute, as you are as shocked as I was.
Growing up we always went on Spring Break as a family and a summer trip to Canada. The joke always when piling into the car was my dad saying, “Say something if you aren’t here.” As he pulled away we would then respond with, “Here!” At the end of this summer trip someone spoke up, “Wait, Candice isn’t here.” As the story goes, they pulled back into the same spot just in time for me to come prancing out of McDonalds. They never said a word. For ten years they all kept this secret. This was not the only time I was left behind somewhere, just the only one I had no clue took place.
I was never really a “wanderer,” but was always exactly where I was left behind. Often I was just too busy to realize everyone else had left me behind as I was too busy talking. Imagine that!
Luke is the only gospel that gives us a glimpse of Jesus as a child. Once being a child myself and now having my own, I love hearing stories of one’s childhood.
Like it or not, your childhood helps shape you into the person you become.
I know what kind of parent I am to my three living children; one that is sometimes doing it well, other times is failing, but always striving to raise adults who will contribute to making the world better. But if Alexander, our first son, would have lived through his minimum of three open heart surgeries I wonder what kind of mom I would be. I imagine he would be spoiled rotten. I imagine most days I would have given our Little Man everything he wanted knowing any moment could be his last. He would be a daily reminder that each day is a gift.
Knowing this about myself, I am thankful for Mary, the mother of Jesus, who shows us how to mother a child who is special.
Imagine for a minute you are a virgin and told by an angel you will have a child, the Son of God (Luke 1:26-38). Then imagine visiting your cousin Elizabeth who confirms this when she describes how her unborn baby leapt in her womb and called her “the mother of her Lord” (Luke 1:39-45). Then despite the less than red carpet birth in a manger, strangers came far and wide to see this baby.
If all of this wasn’t enough confirmation of the special gift they have, when they presented Jesus in the Temple to the Lord to follow custom, they were told this by a man named Simeon:
“This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, 35 so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.” Luke 2:34-35
But I find no evidence of a child raised like he was a king. No evidence that he was treated special. In Luke 2:41-52 we find a 12 year old Jesus traveling from Nazareth to Jerusalem in their annual trip for the Passover festival.
43 After the festival was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. 44 Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. 45 When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him
Another time I was left behind it was at church. My dad was a Sunday school teacher, my mom the kids director, and so they along with my sister all drove separately needing to be there at different times. The result was each one thought I was riding home with another. Like most parents, when Mary and Joseph don’t see Jesus at first they believe he is just with someone else.
But when Jesus was missing for a day, they began to look for him. Isn’t it crazy how laxed we get as parents when we are with family and friends? We get distracted and we think others can see them. I am guilty of this!
46 After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47 Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers.
THREE DAYS LATER!!
Can you imagine? No phones. No Internet. No photo to pass around. No helicopter for aerial searches. Just two parents looking by foot and I imagine they were frantically yelling his name.
48 When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.”
49 “Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” 50 But they did not understand what he was saying to them.
51 Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. 52 And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.
When he was discovered he wasn’t excited to see them or falling into their arms with worry. No he never even knew he was lost. He was right where he needed to be.
His parents responded way more calm than I would have after three days. After the initial gratitude for his discovery, I believe I would want to whoop his hiney.
But he was still a child. He was still obedient and they still treated him as a child, one that was still growing, learning, and developing.
Mary knew she was the mother to something greater than she could even understand but this didn’t stop her from being the mother he needed to rise into his calling.
We never really know what our children will rise up to become. Our job is to raise them up the best we can and the rest we leave to God.
Even when it seems our children are “lost” they might just be exactly where God needs them to be.
