Luke 2 New American Bible (Revised Edition) (NABRE) Chapter 2 The Birth of Jesus. 1 In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled. 2 This was the first enrollment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 So all went to be enrolled, each to his own town. 4 And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, 5 to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. 6 While they were there, the time came for her to have her child, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. 8 Now there were shepherds in that region living in the fields and keeping the night watch over their flock. 9 T...
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Did you talk with your dad as you were learning to work with wood beside him?
Did you hug your mom when you came in and smelled something yummy cooking for dinner?
Did you tussle your younger brothers' hair and hand your sisters' dolls back to them?
Did you put your forehead to the forehead of a lamb or cow or donkey, like they did on Yom Kippur, but instead of transferring the sins of the nation to the animal, did you transfer a blessing and life and peace to it, telling it that you would be the sacrifice instead?
You must have had fun. And laughed and sang. Could you dance or did you have two left feet?
Were there people even then who resented who you were? Your kindness. Your fairness. Your goodness.
What did you do when you were disappointed?
What did you do when you bled?
Did you take a lot of walks and sit on high hills by yourself, watching the town below or the clouds or the sun setting?
What if you were clumsy or homely or chubby, had a speech impediment or big ears or depression or acne? What if you weren't as self-assured as I've always imagined you to be? What if you weren't "perfect"? Would that stop you from being the Messiah? From being the beloved? From being the Son of God? I don't think so, but I never picture you that way. Maybe it would be better if I did. To break the hold of "beauty" and "perfection" on me.
Regardless, the blessing of the animal. All creatures. The absorption of sin and the giving of life.
I am particularly uncomfortable imagining about others - I worry that my imagination might be too selective or project my own feelings and fears upon my imagination of others.
Nonetheless,
I imagine that Jesus probably had friends but not many.
The scripture says that Jesus was filled with wisdom.
Teenage boys, perhaps many boys and girls, probably did not seek to be filled wisdom. Jesus, unique character- Wisdom, emotional intelligence, situational awareness - seeing moments through God’s eyes, a heart of compassion and mercy might limit Jesus’s experiences being known intimately by others. Jesus probably often experienced being quite distant in an interior way from many.
I imagine Jesus was close to his mother. Jesus was surely grateful to be close to his mother - God does not bless all of us with experiences of maternal closeness.
To experience deep kinship, Jesus spent more time with his Heavenly Father and abiding with Holy Spirit.
His time with his Father and the Holy Spirit gave him joy for the journey - providing strength to stay on the chosen path until His time.
Jesus saw the injustice in His world back then just as he sees the injustice in His world today.
Imagine that Jesus needed and still needs deep resolve to love others when surrounded by so much injustice in His world then and today. Jesus’s exercised deep resolve to love the persecutors, the persecuted, and the disengaged bystanders, to remain unconsumed by righteous anger, and to not be overcome by despair for all of the injustice that he saw.