Jesus Grows Up Anonymously

And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him. Luke 2:40


Steps: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12


When Joseph, Mary, and Jesus returned to Nazareth they set up their home, Joseph returned to his business as a carpenter and the family settled into the task of raising a family. They lived their lives and did their work and the greatest work they did was to teach Jesus how to be a God-fearing child and to learn the things of God. Jesus was taught about the truths of the Word of God like any other child. The biggest difference was that Jesus never sinned against God, or His family, and so He had a particularly sweet disposition and He was filled with the Holy Spirit and God blessed Him with many gifts and Jesus took full advantage of all of the gifts of God and He grew up in a manner that God intended every child of the world to grow up. God had told us how this was to be done in Deuteronomy 6:3-9 “Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.” These highlighted principles Joseph and Mary did to the best of their ability and God did for them what they could not do. God blessed them and Jesus grew up a totally converted, totally surrendered, non-addicted child of God.

Prayer for Today: God, when we look at Jesus, and certainly when we hear Him as an adult, we see total success and we are stunned by Your original plan. We see how poorly we were raised, in many cases anyway, and are tempted to feel that life was unfair and if we had lived with Mary and Joseph and had Your blessings we would have turned out differently. While that may be true in some cases, most of us had many opportunities to work with You but we have been so preoccupied with our own ways that even when You offered us special help we turned You down. Help us now to recognize where we went wrong and be willing to surrender to You for help and start on the right path today. Thank You for coming to look for us and to offer us Your assistance today.