And Jesus matured, growing up in both body and spirit, blessed by both God and people. (MSG)
This is the story of a twelve year old and his parents making their annual trip to Jerusalem for the Feast of Passover. When it came time to go back home, Jesus' parents started off to Nazareth and thought their son was walking with relatives or neighbors. However, Jesus never told his parents that he had decided to stay behind.
So the next day after missing him, his parents traveled back to Jerusalem and found him sitting at the temple listening to the teachers and asking them questions. These teachers were very impressed with him, but his parents were not. They were upset and wanted to know why he did this. Jesus said he had to be there, he had to hear what they were saying about his Father. His parents didn't understand and told Jesus they were all going home - Now. Jesus learned he had to be obedient to his earthly parents as well as to God.
My grandson, Jacob is now three. He likes to climb everything, scale walls and pretend he's Spiderman. He puffs up his little arm muscles and deepens his voice and says, 'I do it myself' or 'I'm big'. We always have to ask, "Where's Jake?" He can disappear in a heartbeat, both inside and outside the house. We watch him like a hawk because he is so quick in his spontaneous actions.
Usually he is playing in another room by himself or in the sandbox, but sometimes he is into my fishpond (literally) or climbing on the big rock. Those are the times Jacob learns to be obedient to his parents even though he thinks he's big.
Jesus grew up blessed by God and people and Jacob is growing up blessed by God and people.
I am very blessed to have both God and people. I have people who help me grow both in Christ and in life, they continuingly keep me focused on God and they are here for me to lean on. Again I say I am so blessed.
Obedience and blessings go together. We are blessed, but no matter how big, smart or mature we think we are, we do have to be obedient. Be obedient to God first and the blessings will come.
