Page 114 - Back to Bethlehem 2-5-19

Behold, Your father and I have been anxiously looking for
You.’” Mary said, “Why have you treated us this way?”

You know the story. Luke 2:43, “…and as they were returning,
after spending the full number of days, the boy Jesus stayed
behind in Jerusalem. And His parents were unaware of it.”
Based on their relationship Mary expected Jesus to go home
when they went home. When they didn’t see Jesus, according
to Luke 2:44, they thought He was with the relatives.

I can understand Mary’s point. I have six children and based
on my relationship with them, I have expectations. If I had a
twelve year old son and he didn’t come home with us, I would
not be happy. My firstborn son is David. We had a curfew to
be home at a certain time. One day David missed the curfew.
He was late and he thought, “I’m late anyway and I’m going to
get in trouble, so I might as well stay here all night.” So, he
stayed all night. He did not call us and we did not know where
he was. He figured that he was in trouble anyway and he might
as well stay. Something like that happened in this case.

We have a relationship with Jesus and sometimes based on our
relationship, we have expectations of Jesus. I’m a child of God
and I expect Him to keep me from tragedy. I’m a child of God
and I expect Him to keep me from sickness. And if I get sick,
because of my relationship, I expect Him to heal me. I expect
Him to keep me from poverty. It’s all based on a relationship.
I have expectations but sometimes He doesn’t meet my
expectations.

A tremendous statement was made when Jesus was twelve
years old. When His mother heard it, she didn’t understand it.
So, she put it in her heart. The Bible says that she thought about
it, she pondered it in her heart. How long did she ponder it in
her heart? The answer is she pondered it until He was thirty
years old. She didn’t understand what He said.