LEAVE ROOM FOR SURPRISES

Luke 2:43-44 After the festival was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends.

A quick historical check would reveal that involvement in the Passover begun at a very young age so in reality, this trip to Jerusalem was unlikely the first time the family were making this journey. On each occasion though, they had made it back without concerns.

We should thus not be surprised and deem Mary and Joseph as negligent  as they would have expected Jesus to follow the patterns of what had happened every year they had gone up. That however, was where the issue lay.

Even when situations and events are predictable with a high degree of accuracy, and clear patterns can be observed, it is still a risk to run off on the basis of presumption. Mary and Joseph presumed Jesus had travelled with the whole group. For drawing that conclusion, the cost to them was a 40 kilometer trip back to Jerusalem and a three day search for him.

Many tend to draw their own conclusions often on the basis of prior experiences and their own expectations. They leave no room for events to unfold along any other trajectory, or as often said “no room for life to happen”. That is why for such individuals, surprise, shock and sometimes disappointment hits them hardest.

Not every variable will fall under your control, so leave room for some surprises. Don’t be presumptuous.

#sly