RKT2 - Teenagers...sheesh!

This past week I have had family visiting from out-of-town, among them a twelve-year-old girl, Kim. Most of the time she has such enthusiasm, it is infectious. So many things are new for her, it is a joy to witness them through her eyes and to hear about what she sees. Often, she sees things that I've missed for almost four years. Amazing.

Then there are those other times - the ones about which parents would shake their collective heads knowingly. Meltdowns over missing french fries. Pouting over unfamiliar foods that they insisted that they liked but somehow did not match their expectations. Anger about being corrected on a crowded bus that NO one cannot hop to a different seat every other stop. And the seemingly quintessential question, "Are we there yet?"

While I work with teenagers a LOT, it's a little different being the surrogate parent for one, 24/7, at least for a while.

I now have some deeper sympathy for Mary and Joseph in this passage from Luke chapter 2,

Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival. When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. Assuming that he was in the group of travellers, they went a day’s journey. Then they started to look for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. When his parents saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, ‘Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.’ He said to them, ‘Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house'"

Jesus, a precocious teenager, who wanders off in the middle of a family vacation. With the swaggering voice only an adolescent can muster, he turns attempts to pin the blame on his parents, how could they not known where he would be? Seriously, Mom, like you didn't know. DUH!

If we take seriouly that God was present fully and specially in Jesus Christ, on the one hand, it's hard to take this passage to heart. However, on the other hand, despite all we might be tempted to believe about teenagers, if God indeed was once a 12-year-old, then God too understands them and their mood swings and their pouts and doubts and tears. God knows and loves each and every teenager just as they are, even when they're driving us CRAZY.

God please help me remember!