Listen

After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, “Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.” He said to them, “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he said to them. Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart.

Luke 2:46-51

Think

Jesus was twelve years old when Mary and Joseph lost him at the temple in Jerusalem. While many traditions refer to this story as “The Boy Jesus Teaching in the Temple,” Scripture says he was actually “listening to them and asking them questions.”

A posture of listening and asking questions requires humility and a willingness to admit that we just might not know everything. Too often, we want to be the one with the answers, but what if we were to be more like Jesus at twelve years old, and be willing to listen more and to ask more questions?

What could you learn, and who might you learn from?

Joann Lee

Pray

God, help me to be better a listener, so that I may learn to hear what you are teaching me. May I be humble enough to recognize that I still have much to learn, and open enough to change and grow in you. Amen.

Go

Depart now in peace, for your eyes have seen the salvation which God has prepared for all people. Grow in strength and wisdom and bring forth a harvest of righteousness and praise.
May God smile upon you and make you strong and wise. May Christ Jesus and his humble birth fill you with awe.
And may the Holy Spirit open your eyes to the presence of God’s Messiah.

Adapted from Nathan Nettleton, www.laughingbird.net, ©2002