Joseph, Mary, and Jesus did fine with the big holy days. Even with the reading of the Haggadah, especially with the Seder and its special foods, songs, and customs.

Jesus was twelve years old. The family had gone up to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover.*

As expected, Jesus, obedient, stayed with his parents. The savory and pungent odors sought him out, even though mixed with human and animal fragrances, and with the dust of Jerusalem, ancient even then.

Imagine reassembling the caravan and putting everything in order. The procession home was like a huge family, so you knew your child would be with friends or relatives when he was not by your side.

Road dust, camel sniffables, and so on, now dominated. It was a happy time, recalling the festivities, remembering the earliest acts of God on behalf of his people.

The sun began to sink and families came together for sleep. “Joseph, I think we should look for our son. He is probably talking with his friends as usual.”

Little did she know.

No relative had seen him anywhere. Last sighted the day before.

In Jerusalem.

Mary’s heart must have broken. What mother on earth cannot imagine it. Missing child. My child. Gone. They scoured the cramped city.

Day One, looking everywhere, no sign of him. They sleep an hour or so. Day Two, searching everywhere, asking everyone, following every trail. He was not there. Images of kidnapping, slavery, terrible accidents, and so many more hovered just beneath their consciousness. Somehow they trusted, but ...

Day Three. To the temple. This time finally daring in their panic to enter directly into the utterly private rooms where teachers and Rabbis debated major and minor points of scripture. No regular people allowed there, especially poor travelers.

But there he sat.

Perfectly at home for these three eternal days, the twelve year old, questioning teachers and answering them.

Imagine his parents. “Son, how could you? How could you?”

His answer was odd and we are told that Mary pondered it in her heart for years to come. “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?” Was this reply preposterous? Obviously he needed a good spanking if he believed that desertion of his parents was perfectly fine.

Yet think about it.

He had not come to earth in order to be Mary and Joseph’s child. Just the opposite. Mary and Joseph came into earthly existence to prepare this boy for his role as the adult son of the Father of all things.

Every family’s duty is to send their young children out from home when they are approaching adulthood. In this case, even at twelve years old, Jesus was showing how God interacts with the world.

A learning experience for the family, painful, good, and pointing toward the future Easter.