Luke 2:41-52
Lead in: Jesus’ parents find their twelve year old son conversing with the scholars of the law in the temple, who are quite taken with the boy and the answers he was giving them. His parents, however, weren’t quite as impressed. For three days they’ve been half out of their minds looking for him. Being a parent isn’t always easy. But then neither is it easy for a young teenager, who is trying to assert their independence, as they look for their own identity as an emerging young adult.
Prompt: If you’re a parent, reflect on a situation when you were half out of your mind worrying about your child. What did you learn?
Prompt: Reflect on a time when, as a teenager, you were trying to assert your independence but it came out in an awkward way. What did you learn from that?
Lead in: “Not finding him, they returned to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him.” Luke 2:46 You can almost feel the panic of Jesus’ parents. Three days searching for your child, and yet no sign of him. If it had been today, the police would have been involved. The trials that parents go through for their kids, they’d do anything to get their child back. That’s what a parent does. Their love for their child is that strong.
Prompt: In your family, has there ever been a time of panic when you weren’t sure if your loved one was going to be all right? How did you deal with the crisis you were facing?
Lead in: “And his mother kept all these things in her heart.” Luke 2:51 It’s said that a parent lives and dies a thousand times over as they walk with their child through the rough and tumble challenges of their growing up years and on into the child’s adult years. Such is the price of love.
Prompt: Think about the price of love your parents paid for you when you were growing up. What stories come to mind for you?
Lead in: In Colossians 3, Paul encourages us to “Put on heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience bearing with one another and forgiving one another… as the Lord has forgiven you, so also must you do.” Paul names the key ingredients needed if a community is to survive the slings and arrows that are part of being a community. Conflict within a community is inevitable. If handled well, it can be the opportunity for a community to grow even stronger. If a community can learn to work through its differences, the relationships within that community will grow even stronger.
Prompt: Reflect on your experience of working through conflict in a community. That community could be the community of a family, or the workplace, or a church you belong to, or a relationship in a marriage or a friendship. What lessons did you learn working through those challenges in a community?
