Luke 2:42-51 :
When he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the feast, and when they had fulfilled the days, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. Joseph and his mother didn’t know it, but supposing him to be in the company, they went a day’s journey, and they looked for him among their relatives and acquaintances. When they didn’t find him, they returned to Jerusalem, looking for him. It happened after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them, and asking them questions. All who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. When they saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us this way? Behold, your father and I were anxiously looking for you.”
He said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Didn’t you know that I must be in my Father’s house?” They didn’t understand the saying which he spoke to them. And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth. He was subject to them, and his mother kept all these sayings in her heart.
This has always been an interesting piece of history to me and was one of the things that Mary kept in her heart, and the Dr. Luke was able to write down for us. This reminds me of something important to discuss about parenting.
It is easy for us as parent to try to control every aspect of the lives of our children in order to give them the very best in life. Even if we don't attempt to control our children, we may go the other way and not be concerned about the direction that they are going. Both ways are wrong. We see here that Mary and Joseph weren't paying close enough attention to the truth about Jesus and, perhaps, not close enough attention to God's will. Evidently, God wanted Jesus to stay longer in the temple that day, but Mary and Joseph were caught up enough in the procession that they didn't even realize that Jesus wasn't with them for a whole day of travel.
I do think it is wonderful to a have a community of faith that works together to take care of children. I don't see any fault in that, but the real problem appeared to be that Mary and Joseph didn't realize that God wanted Jesus to stay longer and not only did they miss God's clues, they even got distracted enough to get a whole day out of the city without considering it.
I noticed that vacations can be a time when I really focus on Jesus or a time when I get distracted and focus on my own interests. I prefer the vacations that are Jesus focused because I look back on those times as points in my life when I really rested. I can see that running around town for a day looking for Jesus was probably not Joseph's idea of fun!
As children, we see that obeying God should take first priority. If parental guidance goes against what God wants you to do then you must go with God. We also see that Jesus still "was subject to them" as soon as it was God's will to do so. It is important, however, to know what God's will is by reading the Bible and keeping our minds on the truth that He has already told us.