Where is Jesus?

Every mother who has ever lost sight of her child in a crowd, even for a few seconds, knows the panic.

I think of Mary living with that level of anxiety for three straight days. I doubt she slept, but I’m sure Joseph forced her to lie down at night, imploring her to think of her health, to rest while he kept on searching the streets of Jerusalem. I imagine her lying there, eyes open and staring at the ceiling. Mary, full of grace. Mary, spotless of sin. Weeping in the dark, whispering, “Where is he?”

It’s an experience that we all have at one point or another. Running through the world, desperate and confused, just trying to find God and failing so miserably that we wonder if He’s purposefully eluding us.

If Mary couldn’t even find Him, do we stand a chance?

Why didn’t Mary think to look in the temple? She had wisdom beyond anyone else who ever lived, at least when it came to Jesus. But I think God purposefully dropped a veil over her reasoning for these three days, so that He could show us it’s okay to lose our way.

He isn’t eluding us. In fact, He’s trying to make it easy. He’s staying put, in one place, the very place we should know to look. But the streets of our life are so crowded and loud, so full of distraction.

The Christmas season is about God revealing to us who and what and where He is. He has told us. The question is, have we listened?

©LPi