This incredible POWER LIST of maturing
attributes of teenage Jesus is a place we could spend days and pages
of descriptions of this Creator of all that is, and our one and only
Savior. Previously, we mentioned the diversity in personality of the
gospels of Jesus Christ. Remember? Matthew wrote to the Jews, Mark
to the Romans, Luke to the Gentiles, and John wrote to everyone. The
picture to see, is that God leaves no one out, as He presents His plan
and provisions for you and I, no matter where we live or how we live.
God has His compassionate eye on each of us, 24 hours a day, 7 days a
week.
As John finishes his book of the
“Gospel of John”, he feels swamped. He feels he hasn't even
scratched the surface, of all that Jesus has done, around us, for us,
and inside us. His closing words tell us,
“And there are also many other
things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every
one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books
that should be written. Amen.” John 21:25
In Luke 2:42, we see some key facts,
that each hold more diamonds than we can describe here. First is that
scripture tells us that Jesus is now 12 years old. After his next
birthday, the Jewish society would then consider him an adult, with
all the responsibilities that come with it. The Bar Mitzpah ceremony
proclaims this transition to the world. (Girls 'become adults' one
year earlier.)
We see in just these few verses that
Jesus stresses his parents out, in their 3 day search and rescue for
him. When Mary and Joseph ask him why he's done this, his response
had not a drop of apology in it. They didn't even understand his
response. He told them, he was doing His father's business. His
response began a transition from being just Mary's little boy, to a
servant of the Most High God in heaven.
Taking responsibility for our actions
and seeing God's claim on our life and mission, is a monumental
transition. It may come in a blink of an eye or take days to take our
life in our hands and hold it up to Heaven, and humbly say, “For
whatever it's worth, Dear God, here I am; here's my life. Let it be a
tool; a testimony to your unfathomable undying love and Lordship,
upon me, and those around me.”
Those youth we minister to, have to
come to this same place of recognizing their place and purpose in
God's plan. Only then can they view each sunny or stormy day in their
lives as God's shaping their character and talents to magnify Him.
This also gives us all a deeper understanding of God's character as
we seek intimate fellowship with Him in Glory, for our eternity.
In Luke 2:46 and 47, I see a teenage
Jesus in church (the temple). Wow! What a perfect place for every
teenager to learn about life and God's love. Being in the right place
at the right time is more than half of any battle, isn't it? This is
a powerful truth that teens of every age need to understand and act
upon.
My heart pushes to paint a picture of
young Jesus right in the middle of all the lawyers and priests. In
his quest to learn all he could about church and God, Jesus wasn't a
back seat student in any fashion. I see him sitting and listening to
all that was being taught, during those three days his parents were
searching all of Jerusalem for their young son. Sitting and listening
is not a real easy thing to deeply do. Most of us listen just close
enough to form our replies. And our replies are often meant just to
impress our listeners how smart we are (or think we are).
Jesus certainly heard the lawyers teach
some things that were not true. This happens to us every day. We must
be good at discerning truth from tale, fact from fiction. The youth
we minister to, have incredibly poor ability in doing this. They
become sidetracked; they become distracted the same way Eve was
sidetracked by Satan in the Garden of Eden.
'Sitting and listening' also has a
powerful influence on others, that we cherish. If we first listen to
them, they'll more likely listen to us. It's a good partner to asking
good questions that move us closer an understanding and actions that
please God and produce our FULL JOY promised in scripture.
In asking good questions, Jesus got
strong attention from his 'teachers'. This resulted in Jesus TEACHING
HIS TEACHERS. More than that, he amazed them with how much he knew
and how rich his answers were, to their questions.
As you minister to those troubled young
hearts around you, do you compassionately listen to them? Can your
heart be humble enough to expect they can teach you some things. We
silver-haired mentors have a great deal of misconceptions about
teenagers today. Our mentoring will never get to first base unless we
want our 'students' to become our teacher, for a time. Can you deeply
thank God for allowing you to minister to that teenager? Do your
prayers show this? Can you pray with that young heart in a way that
draws you both into the very center of God's grace and mercy?
