That’s my son, 12 month old Landry Jones. He’s looking pretty angelic right there I gotta tell ya, but swirling behind those big brown eyes were thoughts of how to escape out of those knickers and uncomfortable hat his mom had dressed him in.
Landry was born mover and a shaker. Snippets of childhood videos play through my head. “Landry, let’s stay on the sidewalk and don’t throw a fit now,” his older sister chided one day as Kevin and I worked with our middle daughter in the street while she learned to ride a bike. Poor Nikki, she had no clue what an uphill battle it would become trying to keep her baby brother out of harms way.
“Ooop, there he goes again,” my dad remarked on camera. He had been holding Landry and his cousin of the same age trying to get them to pose for Christmas photos. Little did dad know Landry had just learned to crawl and by golly nobody was going to hold him back from his new found skill.
After having two little girls who seldom thought of challenging their obedience to Kevin and me, God sent me a little boy who was set on exploring his world and doing things his way. Kevin and I had to adjust to the different rhythm and drumbeat of a curious little boy.
Not wanting to pick on Landry too much, his sisters dealt us some trial and errors of their own. Not wanting to pick on my own kids and their sins too much, I too dealt my mom and dad quite a number of rebellious attitudes. (But so did my brother.) I think of my poor grandmother who raised four boys. My dad and his brothers could go on and on with their tales of mischief and pranks they pulled on each other.
Why am I pulling out the family skeletons?
“Jesus went with them to Nazareth and was obedient to them. But his mother kept in her mind all that had happened.” Luke 2:51
What was it like raising the only sinless child who ever walked the face of the earth? How intimidating it must have been to be Jesus’ parents. At least in my family, we were all in this sin thing together. Mary and Joseph, and Jesus’ siblings often displayed their selfish sinful nature. They had to have because the Bible says, “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23
Mary and Joseph needed a Savior the same as you and me, but they were raising the Savior of the world. They never had to discipline Him because He came to discipline them and guide them back to right relationship with their Father in heaven.
Questions Day 2
Waypoints to your destination:
What do you think it was like raising the sinless Son of God?
What did Jesus increase in? Luke 2:52
What do you think it might have been like carrying on a conversation and having bedtime prayers with Jesus?
From these verses, what did God think of His Son at this time in Jesus’ life on earth?