My wife and I sat our four-year-old daughter down between us and read from the journal we created titled, “Stef’s Life.” It contained memorable happenings from her first two years. A diary of sorts. We loved to review it together.
Event #1: We had a distinguished visitor for Sabbath lunch today from the General Conference. After he left, we took you aside and said, “Stef, you should not have passed gas in front of Mr. ___________.” You replied, “I didn’t do it in front of him. I was standing right beside him.”
Event #2: After visiting Santa at the local Mall, we took you out for pizza. Coincidently, we had been studying the Old Testament ark and flood from Your Bible Story books. While we were waiting to be served, you walked from table to table telling people, “I just saw Noah!”
Event #3: Mom took you to Cradle Roll Sabbath School at church. The teacher asked the children if anyone had a dog. Your hand shot up. She came over and inquired, “So what’s your doggy’s name?” You replied, “My daddy calls him “D_ _ _ Dog, but I call him Tinker.”
I can easily imagine a similar scene in Nazareth with four-year-old Jesus sitting between Mary and Joseph as they recount happenings from His earliest days.
“You were born in the strangest of places… a barn surrounded by sheep and cows and chickens and donkeys. They formed a very unusual welcoming committee.
Jesus chuckles at the thought.
Joseph adds, “The next night, some shepherds walked right into that old, creaky, leaky, barn and said they’d been looking everywhere for our little family. Isn’t that amazing? Out of all those thousands of pilgrims in Bethlehem. They told us that they had just seen a huge choir of angels, singing way up in the sky, as high as the clouds. Hundreds of them. They were singing about (he pokes Jesus on the shoulder) You. So You must be very special. Don’t you think?”
Mary looks at Joseph and says, “Please get those three boxes on the shelf.” She holds the first one in front of Jesus. He reaches out and runs His little fingers over it. “This blue, inlaid box held the pieces of gold that the men from the East gave us. We had to sell all the gold in Egypt for food and shelter. This fancy six-sided box with the paintings of birds still smells a little like the Frankincense that was inside. And then this box for the Myrrh. We had to sell all that incense and oil for our journey back home and to get your father’s carpenter shop going again. Here, smell inside for yourself.” Jesus leans forward and sniffs, then smiles.
And more stories tumble out over time and are repeated. The angel appearing to Mary. Joseph’s dreams. The blessing of Simeon and Anna at the temple. The wisemen from the East. Zacharias’ inability to speak.
As Jesus grew, I can’t help but wonder how Mary and Joseph told Him about being “born of a virgin.” No one ever had to explain such a thing to their child before or since. The standard “birds and bees” analogy did not apply. Christ’s parents must have pondered long and hard about how to explain the unexplainable.
“You see Son, babies are usually made when… But that’s not what happened with You…”
I can hear Christ eventually replying, “So let me see if I’ve got this straight…”
Then, at age twelve, came the momentous, life-altering visit to Jerusalem during Passover. A fifth or sixth grader in today’s terms, Jesus navigates the immense crowds, making a beeline for the Harvard Divinity School of His day. He runs past offices and classrooms to the largest lecture hall where several distinguished professors have made themselves available. People are pouring in. Luckily, the Savior finds a seat in the front row.
Christ raises His hand often, asking provocative questions that leave the old men stroking their coiffured beards and mumbling among themselves.
At night, Christ and His family head back to their tent on the hillside, carefully stepping along temporary planks across the Kidron River now swollen to several times its normal size with the continuous flow of blood that drains from the hectic Temple altar.[1] Lying awake at night, wondering, puzzling it all out into the wee hours.
The next day, on His way back to the lecture hall, the precocious pre-teen looks out across vast flocks of sheep that stretch into the horizon. Countless thousands. He sees them being led, one by one, to slaughter. Over and over and over again. All day, every day, the killing. New insights immerge. Painful possibilities begin to stir.
At the end of their stay, Christ is so completely absorbed in thought and conversation with the elders that he forgets to go home. He is focused like a laser on His Father’s business and His unexpectedly central role.
How did the fullness of Jesus’ self-understanding develop? How do you discover that you are God? No maps exist for such a fantastic journey within the human family. I cannot imagine that the full answer to the question “Who am I?” came to Him with suddenness and clarity. Most likely bit by challenging bit.
There were so many mental hurdles for Jesus to overcome regarding His place in the world. All His life He had been taught to say the Shema, “Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is ONE” (Dt 6:4). How could there now be Two? His close examination of the Old Testament actually indicates Three. Clearly impossible.
At some point, after putting all of His parents’ stories and all the evidence from scripture together, Jesus comes to the astounding, very personal, conclusion, “I am GOD!!”
Did He think, “Who can I tell? They’ll think I’m crazy.” Did He confide in His mother? Certainly not His brothers or the priests. How do you keep making furniture and taking out the garbage when you know that you are God?
I try to imagine how I would react if my very best friend from childhood, Charlie, came to me and whispered, “I can’t sleep at night. I have this growing conviction that I just can’t shake.”
“What is it Charlie?”
“Well… I… I think… I think I’m… God.”
“Ya. Great. And I’m Superman.”
Continued below....
Event #1: We had a distinguished visitor for Sabbath lunch today from the General Conference. After he left, we took you aside and said, “Stef, you should not have passed gas in front of Mr. ___________.” You replied, “I didn’t do it in front of him. I was standing right beside him.”
Event #2: After visiting Santa at the local Mall, we took you out for pizza. Coincidently, we had been studying the Old Testament ark and flood from Your Bible Story books. While we were waiting to be served, you walked from table to table telling people, “I just saw Noah!”
Event #3: Mom took you to Cradle Roll Sabbath School at church. The teacher asked the children if anyone had a dog. Your hand shot up. She came over and inquired, “So what’s your doggy’s name?” You replied, “My daddy calls him “D_ _ _ Dog, but I call him Tinker.”
I can easily imagine a similar scene in Nazareth with four-year-old Jesus sitting between Mary and Joseph as they recount happenings from His earliest days.
“You were born in the strangest of places… a barn surrounded by sheep and cows and chickens and donkeys. They formed a very unusual welcoming committee.
Jesus chuckles at the thought.
Joseph adds, “The next night, some shepherds walked right into that old, creaky, leaky, barn and said they’d been looking everywhere for our little family. Isn’t that amazing? Out of all those thousands of pilgrims in Bethlehem. They told us that they had just seen a huge choir of angels, singing way up in the sky, as high as the clouds. Hundreds of them. They were singing about (he pokes Jesus on the shoulder) You. So You must be very special. Don’t you think?”
Mary looks at Joseph and says, “Please get those three boxes on the shelf.” She holds the first one in front of Jesus. He reaches out and runs His little fingers over it. “This blue, inlaid box held the pieces of gold that the men from the East gave us. We had to sell all the gold in Egypt for food and shelter. This fancy six-sided box with the paintings of birds still smells a little like the Frankincense that was inside. And then this box for the Myrrh. We had to sell all that incense and oil for our journey back home and to get your father’s carpenter shop going again. Here, smell inside for yourself.” Jesus leans forward and sniffs, then smiles.
And more stories tumble out over time and are repeated. The angel appearing to Mary. Joseph’s dreams. The blessing of Simeon and Anna at the temple. The wisemen from the East. Zacharias’ inability to speak.
As Jesus grew, I can’t help but wonder how Mary and Joseph told Him about being “born of a virgin.” No one ever had to explain such a thing to their child before or since. The standard “birds and bees” analogy did not apply. Christ’s parents must have pondered long and hard about how to explain the unexplainable.
“You see Son, babies are usually made when… But that’s not what happened with You…”
I can hear Christ eventually replying, “So let me see if I’ve got this straight…”
Then, at age twelve, came the momentous, life-altering visit to Jerusalem during Passover. A fifth or sixth grader in today’s terms, Jesus navigates the immense crowds, making a beeline for the Harvard Divinity School of His day. He runs past offices and classrooms to the largest lecture hall where several distinguished professors have made themselves available. People are pouring in. Luckily, the Savior finds a seat in the front row.
Christ raises His hand often, asking provocative questions that leave the old men stroking their coiffured beards and mumbling among themselves.
At night, Christ and His family head back to their tent on the hillside, carefully stepping along temporary planks across the Kidron River now swollen to several times its normal size with the continuous flow of blood that drains from the hectic Temple altar.[1] Lying awake at night, wondering, puzzling it all out into the wee hours.
The next day, on His way back to the lecture hall, the precocious pre-teen looks out across vast flocks of sheep that stretch into the horizon. Countless thousands. He sees them being led, one by one, to slaughter. Over and over and over again. All day, every day, the killing. New insights immerge. Painful possibilities begin to stir.
At the end of their stay, Christ is so completely absorbed in thought and conversation with the elders that he forgets to go home. He is focused like a laser on His Father’s business and His unexpectedly central role.
How did the fullness of Jesus’ self-understanding develop? How do you discover that you are God? No maps exist for such a fantastic journey within the human family. I cannot imagine that the full answer to the question “Who am I?” came to Him with suddenness and clarity. Most likely bit by challenging bit.
There were so many mental hurdles for Jesus to overcome regarding His place in the world. All His life He had been taught to say the Shema, “Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is ONE” (Dt 6:4). How could there now be Two? His close examination of the Old Testament actually indicates Three. Clearly impossible.
At some point, after putting all of His parents’ stories and all the evidence from scripture together, Jesus comes to the astounding, very personal, conclusion, “I am GOD!!”
Did He think, “Who can I tell? They’ll think I’m crazy.” Did He confide in His mother? Certainly not His brothers or the priests. How do you keep making furniture and taking out the garbage when you know that you are God?
I try to imagine how I would react if my very best friend from childhood, Charlie, came to me and whispered, “I can’t sleep at night. I have this growing conviction that I just can’t shake.”
“What is it Charlie?”
“Well… I… I think… I think I’m… God.”
“Ya. Great. And I’m Superman.”
Continued below....