Today’s readings: Click on today’s date at http://www.usccb.org/bible/
Three days with Jesus
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Wednesday of the Second Week of Lent
Luke 2:42-46
At Passover Jesus was twelve years old, and he remained behind his parents in Jerusalem. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.
Sit with Jesus for these few minutes. Listen to him as he listens to you. And now listen for his questions, questions that probe further and further into your soul.
This boy Jesus listens with an unselfish heart. He is not striving for self-actualization. He is whole already, set apart, and he knows this. This fully human young man knows God within himself.  When he listens to other men he loves them. He listens for their sake, to know their hearts and help them find their father. His father. Father and Mother of us all.
His questions must have been wonderful for at least some of these teachers to hear. This kind of student doesn’t come along every day, or in every generation … ever? Jesus sneaked up on them. They didn’t realize who he was.
Before and since those three days in the temple, Jesus is the smartest man who ever lived. I am thinking that his questions revealed more to these teachers than anyone else’s answers.
As I sit with Jesus I know that neither his questions nor his answers are ever designed to hurt me. Instead as they penetrate deep inside, they blossom bursting forth, and I am filled with awe, with love, with understanding, with what surpasses understanding, with the joy of my salvation.
Lord, your questions are powerful, but never hurt me. Thank you for the life they bring me. God said to Job, “Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.” But Job had no answers, and God required none. Job simply said, “I had heard of you, but now I’ve seen you.” And God blessed Job more than he had before. Your blessing, Lord, let me not despise.
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