And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?”  Luke 2: 46

At this time Jesus was 12 years old. At the age 12 Jewish boys were considered adults and expected to start doing adult work but Jesus was not talking about his father the carpenter, He was talking about his father our Lord, God.

God had been revealed to Him (Jesus) but it was not yet time for Jesus to be revealed to men.  This is why the bible tells us that “But they did not understand the statement which He spoke to them” Luke 2: 50. This is Jesus’s parents Mary and Joseph.  Purpose can be revealed to you, but that does not necessarily mean you are being revealed to others. 

The Bible indicates a significant gap of approximately 18 years between Jesus’s apparent awareness of his identity at age 12 and the start of his ministry which was around age 30.  This period many scholars refer to it as the time of preparation. If Christ was a child of a carpenter Joseph, I imagine some of His preparation was happening in the context of who He was under His earthly father.  He was required to do the things that children are required to do and maybe sometimes He was perceived troublesome for deviating from the expectations of His earthly parents but for Him (Christ), He knew He needed to do certain things in a particular way because of who He was called to be. He did not always have time to onboard His parents and try to make them understand. 

The truth is it was not for Him to do the onboarding with everyone, that was for God to do. But the bible tells us that between these 18 years Jesus grew and matured “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.” Luke 2:52. 

There is something else God has shown me in this chapter and the story of Jesus being revealed to men.  Revelation is never without purpose.  In verse 25 to 26, the bible tells us a short story of a man called Simeon who was upright and filled with the Holy Spirit.  God had revealed the coming of Christ to him and told him that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord, Christ.  And indeed, as we read on in Luke 2, we learn that Simeon met Christ at this time and spoke as God had revealed to him about Jesus, almost giving revelation to the parents of Jesus. The bible tells us the words of Simeon left Mary and Joseph confused, even though we know upon Mary’s pregnancy God had told them who they would carry (Luke 1 and Matthew 1). God often reveals things to those who need to know for a specific purpose and at the right time.  For Simeon, God revealed Christ to help the parents build up the incremental knowledge of what was already shared with them. He was just another person to confirm and remind them of the purpose. To be the birth carrier of a whole Mesiah is a huge call. It is possible that you would need information in bite sizes, right? Because if you received everything at one go, you would probably run away. But the information was only supposed to build up for them and help them make sense of things to happen at a later stage.  You see what God is teaching us is that there is nothing outside of purpose where He is concerned. He is not a frivolous God; He is not an egoistic God. He is God the planner, God of purpose, God of destinies. When He reveals something to you, it is not for your own entertainment or amusement. It is for a purpose. 

When God has shown you something about a matter or a foreseeable future about someone, you have a role to play in that person’s life.  Often people misunderstand this to mean the person belongs to them, they are their way to Christ. God does not give such a huge responsibility to fellow humans. It’s only a role not full custody. A person is God’s creation. They belong to God. The bible tells us to work out our own salvation because God wants to have a direct relationship with us. When Simeon was finished with his role in Christ’s life, he was ready to die because that was the end of his role and death was the only next thing to look forward to freely, knowing he had lived to fulfil what he was called to do, preparing the parents for what their child was destined to.

I reflect upon my own spiritual journey and realize how I have met many who wanted to help me on condition that… one of the things God has revealed to me that I would like to share with you is to be aware of people who are “sent” to you by God, yet their condition is primarily self-serving.  We live in a fallen world where people misuse the gifts God has given them to enrich themselves. This is why we are called to remain and let God take us through His own process of refinement like He did with Christ. When you are hurried you will miss important steps in your refinement journey and stepping up into something you are not ready for will be for your own demise.

A spiritual mentor of mine (who does not know he is) recently said to me regarding a specific matter I am learning to figure out, “Lungie find yourself people you can make mistakes with that are your safe space. This will build your confidence and let you be corrected in an environment where there is love”. The very same day God sent me a “safe space” that made me understand what my spiritual mentor was saying. This on its own confirmed that he was the right person to be in my world in this season. His advice was not in service of him but of me.  He did not have to, but he allowed the wisdom in him to speak life in me without expectation.

What I am trying to say to you is that God is talking to us but that does not mean we are qualified to step into certain spaces ahead of time. Moving with God requires patience and humility to be able to step forward to avail yourself and step back when you need to because in God’s world the journey is not as linear as it is in “our” world. Growth is not acquisitions but experiences and missions. Experiences that bring you closer to God, good or bad, experiences that reveal God to you. Achieving things that were placed in your heart and spirit, impacting lives that are placed in your path the right way. This is not just growth, this is success. Everything else is just provision, daily bread because no matter how much of it you have today you could wake up without a single portion of it if you lose sight of the source. 

I wrote this reflecting on my own mission and ended up thinking about how we all are called to different missions, how we all need to be patient but recognizing the mission so we do not miss the preparation season.  How being unprepared could lead to our own downfall.  Today is Worker’s Day in South Africa and I reflect on how sometimes we over invest in work that is just the daily bread and miss the mark of the mission. 

In this season I pray for you and me, that we do not miss the mark and settle for daily bread over mission.

Be blessed, Happy #ThirstyThursday 

#QuenchMyThirst #ThirstyThursday 

Thank God, Jesus pursued me.

LM

Lungie@quenchmythirst.life