Watching and Waiting

Dear Christa—

Thoughts on Luke 2:41-52

Some people think Jesus didn’t know who he was at a young age. It seems to me that he did know—or otherwise, he would seem too much like the crazy people who’ve convinced themselves they’re God or Jesus. But, I guess it doesn’t matter since the Bible doesn’t make that clear.

All the rest of the world—the little part of the world who knew Jesus—assumed he was the natural born child of Joseph and Mary. It seems that even his parents became caught up in day-to-day life, forgetting for the most part that God was living with them.

Isn’t it easy to move from one day to the next consumed by our routine of work and family, to not consciously consider that God is with us? Isn’t it when things go awry that we remember God is there and active, even when we don’t understand His plan?

So it was with Mary when she sees him at the temple conversing with the teachers, when he remarks about being in his father’s house. Then, Mary recalled the things concerning this child that few knew: the angel, the pregnancy, the birth, the shepherds, the wise men, the flight to Egypt
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What was this Messiah who conversed with the teachers in Jerusalem? Who rebuked her, yet submitted to her? Who grew in favor with God and man?

Often we know that God is at work, but we don’t always know what that means. We see His hand, but we must wait to see what it all means because just as with Mary the whole story wasn’t known to her at the time
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So for us, too, little messages come at times to remind us that things are not always as they appear. There is a bigger and greater plan going on. We’re a part of it somehow, but we don’t always know how. In the end we watch and wait; we wait to see what will be revealed through all the little intimations of a spiritual work that lies beyond us. 

—the parishioner who doesn’t do anything