I Had To Be In My Father's House

"Why were you searching for me?" he asked. "Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?" But they did not understand what he was saying to them." Luke 2:49-50

In our Sunday School class we have been talking about Jesus' life as a child and whether or not He was fully cognizant of who He was as He grew up. We will never know for sure whether He was or not. We know that He was fully God but also fully man (child) at the same time. That is something hard for us to comprehend.

But my mind goes to the time when Mary and Joseph were searching for Jesus for three days before they found him in the temple. Mary was quite concerned and asked why He had treated His parents like this. She said, "Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you."Jesus' response to her, was "Why were you searching for me? Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?" I notice that Mary said father with a small letter 'f' while Jesus responded about His Father with a capital 'F', distinguishing that He was talking about His heavenly Father. But still, He went along with His earthly parents and was obedient to them. He knew who He was, but knew that the time was not yet for the world to know who He was.

One thing that strikes me with Jesus' response was that He had to be in His Father's house. How many times as Christians have we made excuses for why we are not able to be in our Father's house. Perhaps we need to look to Jesus' example of the importance of being in daily fellowship with our Heavenly Father. When was the last time you spent time in His presence?