the child.

i wish there was more in the bible about Jesus' childhood. it would be cool to hear about things that happened, how he interacted with people, etc. I once heard a comedian say how terrible it would have been to be james, jesus' brother. Think about it, James is playing around with the lamp and being a pyro... something gets burned up. Mom comes home, "James!! why did you burn up the curtains??"

"It wasnt me mom, it was jesus.."

"dont lie james." and he thinks dang it. i can never blame anything on him.

this is the kind of info i want to know about jesus' childhood, but oh well. all we have is Luke 2.

We talked about this yesterday in sunday school, and i cant get it our of my head how truly amazing this little section of scripture is. Jesus at 12 years old is hanging out in the temple for a few days chattin it up the the pharisees and priests. I used to think that he was teaching them and how much he already knew, but i think i misread it before.

he was "sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions."

how many 12 years olds do you know who would do all they could to meet with teachers and church leaders to learn more about God?

how many adults do this? sadly, not many.

I think we lean too much on our own understanding, our own knowledge. but why? the SON OF GOD did all he could to learn more... and yet we are too afraid to ask questions? See, heres the problem as i see it:

- we know we should read the bible, so we do

- when we read it, it doesnt make perfect sense, so we lose interest or get confused

- next time we read, we read something easy to understand or manipulate it (i.e. "im sad." so you look up joy in the back and read a verse of two to cheer up.)

- we dont know how to read, ask questions, or grow, because we are too prideful to admit we dont know it all and we dont understand it all, so we just fake it.

I know this is not true to everyone all the time, but sometimes it is, at least for me. And to any of my students who read this, ASK QUESTIONS... trust me.

to anyone else who might find themselves being apathetic towards scripture, dont be. im pleading with you... this book is life. ask questions, seek knowledge, seek understanding. NOt because in them you have salvation, but because they point to Jesus.

and in HIM we have eternal life.

"Other books were given for our information, the BIBLE was given for our transformation"