The Festival was over, and the caravan was on its way back home. For eleven years they’d done this journey without incident, so why would it be any different this twelfth year? But it was – Jesus goes missing!
After travelling an entire day, Jesus’ parents, expecting that He was somewhere among family and friends in the caravan, were unaware that He was missing. Retracing their steps, they went in search of their little boy, and found Him after three days of separation. He was in the Temple, and He was different, changed – no longer the same. (read Luke 2:41-52)
Three days completely immersed in the will of God can do that to a person. How can you remain the same after that? You too will be found different and changed. Even your closest relatives are ignorant of where you are and what is transpiring with you spiritually, and they fail to recognize that the “you” they’ve always known is missing.
Within you, as His temple, a unique sense of identity is manifested. Your usual worship gives place to extraordinary fellowship with the Father. Just as it is in pregnancy, something begins to grow inside you, an enlarging that you can feel though it’s not yet obvious to anyone else. It is the work of the Holy Spirit stirring deep within, restoring that connectivity to God that was lost…a cementing of your relationship with the Father.
During those days of separation, your spiritual awareness is piqued and that’s when you know that your life is about to change in ways unimaginable, a life that will follow a path you’ve never before tread. And, like Jesus, you also go “missing” as your metamorphosis begins to unfold – the person you once knew is fading away. Changes, some subtle, almost undetectable, while others are drastic. A complete 180⁰ turn, a transition from the “old man” to the new creature (see 2 Corinthians 5:17 KJV).
Searching for the old you, expecting to find you familiar, but instead a re-born unfamiliar you who’s growing in spiritual wisdom emerges – you've found Jesus.
Amen†
Jesus goes missing!
Shelley Johnson July 27, 2017
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