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, establishing that connectedness 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.
Therefore if any
man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all
things are become new.
(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 – beloved, you’ve found Jesus.
Amen †
Shelley Johnson “Jesus
goes missing!” © 2017 revisited
November 1, 2025
