Twenty Second Day of lent - Childhood

 

By Rose Datoc Dall Credit: altusfineart.com

Are children innocent?  When do they become guilty?  All people are not equal, and some have massive disadvantages over others.  We are born guilty.  It was all stacked up against us.  Yet if we have the desire in our hearts to be good, we can be.  It is the spirit of the living Creator in us that makes us good (or holy). 

We believe that Jesus was fully filled with the spirit of the Creator from birth.  He is the human embodiment of the Creator here on earth.  Was this like King Henry V, walking incognito amongst his soldiers before Agincourt, getting an  impression of their mood?  Not one bit.  It was King Hal, leading from the front, but as a child, not a superhero. 

Here is Jesus, as a child, aware of how things are, and what has to be done.

41 Every year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover. 42 When he was twelve years old, they went up to the festival, according to the custom. 43 After the festival was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. 44 Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. 45 When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. 46 After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47 Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. 48 When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.”  49 “Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” 50 But they did not understand what he was saying to them. Luke 2:41-49

PRAYER:  I come to you as a child.  I bow before you as the kings did.