My most recent thoughts have been about what it must have been like to parent Jesus.  When you first think about parenting a perfect child it sounds really good.  You wouldn’t have to wonder if he was telling you the truth.  He would respect you all the time, do whatever he is told without arguing the first time.  What about sibling rivalry?  Can you imagine being Jesus’ brother??  How hard would that be?  I can just hear James saying to Mary, “Why do you always take Jesus’ side?  Jesus never gets in trouble!”  On the other hand, Jesus’ brothers would know that he thought of them first…did they take advantage of that?  Did Jesus always tell when they were doing something wrong?  Did Mary struggle with favoritism?

How did Mary and Joseph deal with the fact that they were imperfect and parenting a perfect child?  He was fully human and fully God so He needed instruction on how to do things, but He was without sin.  How convicting it must have been to have your child respond to you in a self-controlled and truthful way when you lost your cool?  Did Jesus confront them when they sinned and didn’t realize it?

What about when they are heading home after celebrating in Jerusalem, and they have been traveling for a day only to realize that Jesus wasn’t with them?  They take a days journey back and continue to search high and low for another 2 days for Jesus.  I can’t imagine searching 3 hours much less 3 days for my child.

They finally found him in the temple.  Were they relieved, exasperated, frustrated, confused?  I think I would have given my child a huge hug and then said, “What in the world were you thinking?!  You scared us to death!!”  Jesus responds in a way that I think I would be frustrated with…”Didn’t you know I would be in my Father’s house?”  Um, obviously not…we just searched for days.  You should have been with us!!

Maybe by then Mary and Joseph had already learned that Jesus was right and to listen to Him.  Maybe they were already so used to submitting to God in all they had been through prior to Jesus even being born and the following 12 years.

It all gives me a renewed appreciation for all that Jesus went through.  The Creator of the earth had to answer to parents who were part of His creation.  Amazing!!

It seems to hit me even more the years that we have had a baby in the house.  I now look at Addie and think about how God chose to become completely helpless as a baby.  He was dependent on His creation to feed and care for Him.  So many times we choose to complain about this or that and even blame God or wonder why He isn’t answering our prayers.  I know I need the reminder that He gave everything when He came to this earth that is imperfect and full of sin.  He came to save us…He came to save you.

At times, we have also had fun thinking about how hard it would be to be a sibling to Jesus.  Mary would ask, “Why can’t you be more like Jesus?”, and tattling would be a total waste of time.  Although, I suppose He would be the most selfless to play with.

At any rate, we are having a lot of fun experiencing Christmas with 3 children this year.  It truly is the most wonderful time of the year.