Waiting to Grow Up

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 “Jesus matured in wisdom and years, and in favor with God and with people."
- Luke 2:52 CEB -
Christmas is done and we focus so much time on little baby Jesus! We quickly skip from the baby to the adult Savior that walks on water, feeds multitudes and asks tough questions. For this reason, I love this reminder in the gospel of Luke. Jesus matured! Jesus did not just come out of the manager ready to go.

The early church had a hard time canonizing stories of Jesus as an elementary aged kid or even a middle-schooler.  Any of the surviving stories pair the growing mistakes of children with the power and mystic of a God in human form. Some have Jesus using cosmic powers to prank his friends, other has Jesus creating doves out of dust. Overall they just come out feeling weird. No wonder the early church did not find them useful to put in the Bible! I like to think that this verse from Luke really connects how Jesus lived into the divine/human balance. As Jesus grew up, He became more of Himself and more of one of the Triune aspects of God as He connected with people and connected with God. He was still God in the flesh as the little baby in the manager. But there was something about the time He chose and called those disciples that made it the right time. It is hard to live into the not yet, but even Jesus had to. Most scholars think Jesus died at age 33-36. I think this is an interesting age where people of all walks of life and stages could pay attention to the radical and life changing words He had to say.


I think for us as we step into a new year, maturing in wisdom and years is exactly what God calls us to do. While we live in the not yet, we have work to do to grow and mature. We become better exactly who God wants us to be as we connect with God and connect with the people God has called us to be around. 

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