Between Christmas and Easter
| We know frustratingly little about the boyhood of Jesus. But Luke gives us a tantalising glimpse in an episode set when Jesus was twelve and the family went to Jerusalem for Passover. In an early safeguarding incident, his parents lose him as they leave. When they return to the Temple, his mother accosts him because they were worrying where he was. Jesus, apparently unruffled, replies, ‘Didn’t you know I had to be about my Father’s business?’ (Luke 2:49 NKJV) Normality is restored and the family returns home. Jesus grows in wisdom and favour and Mary treasures it all up in her heart.
We get a clear sense that Jesus really knew who his Father was and was totally secure in the relationship. We also see something of the energy and pain it cost Mary, nurturing and wondering at this child so unlike any other. Not all of us are fortunate to have such parents. And self-giving parents are one of the strongest foundations for emotional wellbeing that a person can have. February falls almost exactly at the midpoint between Christmas and Easter — Jesus’ birth and his premature death. And there is a parallelism between Advent and Lent. Both are times of preparation, discipline and waiting. Might it not be an opportunity for us to treasure up in our hearts, as Mary did, the love that God has for all, including the bruised and the broken.
Might we not seek a refreshed vision of our Father’s business? As the days lengthen and we approach Lent, my prayer is that we will be drawn together expending our love and energy as He leads. |
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Tim Spargo-Mabbs is Prison Fellowship’s Programmes Co-ordinator.
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