Ensign: What We Can Learn From Our Kids
AN ENSIGN ON THE MOUNTAINS 21 June 2013
[Okay, this Ensign I wrote six years ago on August 3, 2007 -- our son Jeffrey will be turning six in a few weeks! But it's still important to share because, despite Jesus telling us that to enter the kingdom of heaven we have to become as little children (see Mark 10:15 and Luke 18:17), we often confuse being like a child with being childish, and no respectable adult wants to be accused of that. On the first day of summer, it seems appropriate to put that in perspective ...]
Our son Jeffrey turned one month old yesterday, and I'm still floored by that. I'd like to think that my wife Martha and I know some things we need to do raising him (our daughter Sarah turned one month once too) right, but as he gets older we certainly don't expect him to become another Sarah. Heck, we're not even sure what kind of person Sarah's going to become yet! But whatever happens to them or us, we can ultimately rest secure in the knowledge that God is in control even when we don't feel like, ESPECIALLY when we don't feel like, we are!
How many of the big "names" in the Bible are ever referred to when they were growing up, when they were children? We don't pick up Abraham's story until he's seventy-five, Moses appears first as a baby and then as a young adult; I don't know about you, but when I was growing up it was frustrating hearing Bible stories about grownups (and when you're a kid, everyone over twenty-one's a grownup!) being used by God to part seas, raise the dead, collapse the temple, etc. What notoriety do kids receive? Actually, until very recently in our own society, there was no acknowledgment of adolescence or the teen years as a distinct part of one's life. But that's when the character and mores which largely mark who a person becomes are set like the grooves in your brain, and it takes the "patience of Job" coupled with profound tragedy to potentially alter the course of one's life.
The only incidence we see of Jesus as a child (as opposed to as an infant) is in Luke 2:41-50 when He's twelve with Joseph and Mary in Jerusalem for the passover feast. After the feast, Joseph and Mary are headed back home and there must have been quite a crowd because it seems that it took them a while to find that "the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem [because] Joseph and his mother knew not of it." This wasn't a matter of losing your child in the mall; indeed, in "the company" referred to in verse forty-four, Jesus could have been with any of Mary and Joseph's friends and acquaintances, and after a day's journey out of the city and not being able to find Him, Mary and Joseph turned back. If you've ever gone against a crowd of people going the opposite way you are, this is a pain! But the joy of finding their son (although Joseph and Mary both knew, if they didn't fully understand, that Jesus is the Son of God -- two thousand years later, we're often no different) outweighs physical discomfort. We can all be thankful that Jesus' physical discomfort was outweighed by the joy of entering His Father's presence!
So Mary and Joseph go back to Jerusalem, and after three days of searching the city Joseph and Mary find their son in perhaps the last place they expected but at the same time the first place He would be. In the temple, "sitting in the midst of the doctors [of the Mosaic Law], both hearing them, and asking them questions." (46) What would Jesus as the Son of God (and as God) need to learn? Ah, but in order to fully experience being a human being, Jesus had to learn and grow as a human being too, and this learning process is continuous throughout each of our lives. Verse forty-seven: "And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers." Jesus wasn't walking in as a blank slate, but He was far from the point of declaring Himself the Messiah at twelve!
Like any parents, when Mary and Joseph found Jesus they were relieved, and Scripture says they were also amazed -- as amazed, I suspect, as you or I would be when our sixth graders are doing college level work and articulating themselves well. (Hey, I can dream!) But Mary's first question to her son recorded in verse forty-eight is, "Son, why hast thou dealt with us? behold, thy father and I sought thee sorrowing." Though Jesus certainly didn't mean to, He inadvertently (but not sinfully, this is important) hurt them as any child can hurt their parent by running away. Jesus' questions to them in verse forty-nine -- "How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business? -- was something Joseph and Mary didn't understand at the time; verse fifty does not include their answer.
I expect even now, with two thousand years of hindsight, we don't really understand our Father's -- God's -- business much better. Oh, there's commentaries and retreats and seminars and sermons and workshops on this, but how much once the fire burns out do we actually keep doing? If like me you get a little confused by the doctrines of the church (this happens as we get older, trust me), it never hurts to go back to the source. Make no mistake, God still speaks to people, but we have to be willing to listen. We have to have the faith -- even Jesus when He was on Earth had to have faith, because He couldn't model it for us if He didn't -- to push past the world and listen and then act on what we hear. To be doers of the Word and not hearers only, THAT is our Father's business. This passage ends, "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man." He had to, humanly speaking, grow up. So did we and so do we. That's what we have to learn from one twelve-year-old today, and maybe our own kids have something to say too. Are we listening?
David
P.S. I write this weekly devotional to keep in touch with all of you in my address book, and I hope to be an encourager too! If you find that I’m not or you want me to get lost, just let me know, thank you!
We praise You, Lord, for this beautiful day You have given us! Please pray with me for the peace of Jerusalem on both sides of the fence and for physical and spiritual communities around our world.
Lord, we need Your strength to fight the natural disasters and human ills to ultimately treat the cause and not just the symptoms; until we who have power change, this world You have made us stewards of won’t either.
Thank You, Lord, for all those in leadership and service here and abroad. Thank You for the opportunities we have been given as well as the promise of new life through Your Son. And may we all seek and have a blessed week! Amen.
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