don't assume He's with your relatives

Today in the One Year Bible, we read from Luke 2:36-52. We read the story of Jesus being left behind in Jerusalem. And there is an interesting take home message we can find there.

Mary and Joseph left Jerusalem and traveled for a long time before realizing that they'd left Jesus behind. He was in the Temple, doing His Father's business, which is where we can always find Him, even today.

But the thing to learn from the reading today is that we can learn an important lesson from what Mary and Joseph did. They assumed that Jesus was in their family, and so they didn't need to be in constant communication with Him.

That's where we can go wrong, too, right? We can assume that because we grew up in a Christian family, and our mom and dad and all of our relatives go to church every Sunday, that we're good to go with Jesus. But if we depend on that relationship, and don't stay in constant contact with Him, praying without ceasing like Paul tells us in his letter to the Thessalonians (5:17), then we can run off doing our daily business and leave Jesus behind.

We tend to do that, right? We often run ahead of Him, and only realize later that He is still several paces behind us, waiting for us to return.

So let's learn from the Holy Family's example. Let's stay in constant contact, so we don't leave Jesus behind.

God, thanks for teaching us to never lose touch with You.