Description
Reflection: One lost boy
It’s not that unusual for a twelve-year-old boy to stray away from his parents for a while. That’s just about the age when it’s most likely to happen. Twelve is one of those difficult stages in life when childhood is considered to be past, but teenage is not yet achieved and adulthood is still far ahead.
It was different in the time of Jesus, as his trip to the Temple in Jerusalem was part of the ritual of putting childhood behind him, but he was not yet a man and, no doubt, his parents still considered that he was too young to be acting totally independently of them.
It was obvious that he had certain freedoms, as he’d been allowed to wander around with different members of the large family party that had made their pilgrimage together. That was the reason why it wasn’t noticed that he was missing until they had been on the road home for a day. But when they set up their camp for the night, Jesus should have drifted back to his own family for food and shelter, as all twelve-year-olds would. So the search began.
Continues...
©Marjorie Dobson
It’s not that unusual for a twelve-year-old boy to stray away from his parents for a while. That’s just about the age when it’s most likely to happen. Twelve is one of those difficult stages in life when childhood is considered to be past, but teenage is not yet achieved and adulthood is still far ahead.
It was different in the time of Jesus, as his trip to the Temple in Jerusalem was part of the ritual of putting childhood behind him, but he was not yet a man and, no doubt, his parents still considered that he was too young to be acting totally independently of them.
It was obvious that he had certain freedoms, as he’d been allowed to wander around with different members of the large family party that had made their pilgrimage together. That was the reason why it wasn’t noticed that he was missing until they had been on the road home for a day. But when they set up their camp for the night, Jesus should have drifted back to his own family for food and shelter, as all twelve-year-olds would. So the search began.
Continues...
©Marjorie Dobson
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