Why have you done this to us?

 GOSPEL REFLECTION ON LUKE 2:41-52
FEAST OF THE HOLY FAMILY

Being a parent is not easy. Even Mary & Joseph had a tough time with Jesus...
Son, why have you done this to us?
Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.”
Just as Mary and Joseph did, we can also become anxious parents and feel as if our children are doing things "to us".  I have to grit my parent teeth and bite back words of admonishment as I read Jesus' response to his parents...
“Why were you looking for me?
Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”
And yet Jesus' response to Mary and Joseph was his reminder to them of who they were raising and their call to train up Jesus in the way He was to go, not the way they wanted him to go.

In raising our four children there were many times I had to remind myself of Proverbs 22:6. My husband and I were called to train up each child in the way they were to go; not the way we wanted them to go. We had to be a student of each of them and have an awareness of what God breathed into them to be while on this earth.  All 4 of them were radically different, beautiful, challenging, and wonderful in their own way. I am grateful for God blessing us with the honor of raising them into adults and the time we have now to see them "training up their children in the way they are to go..."

Being a parent is not easy. There is tremendous hurt and heartache blended into the moments of mercy and tender love and joyful laughter as we follow in the footsteps and example of the first Christian parents, Mary and Joseph. As I look back on my time of actively raising our children into adulthood I did not always understand the impact of our choices and decision on each of our children.  As they got older, I wondered, watched and "kept in my heart" my observation of who they were becoming and prayed for them and the choices and decisions they made for their life. 

As a grandmother, I pray daily that God guide our children and their spouses in their parenting their children.  I pray that our grandchildren "advance in wisdom and age and favor before God." 

 I do love how The Chosen portrays Luke 2:41-50: https://youtu.be/NqgnUec_tZQ?si=Vs5ia-qgL01nGEGu

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