And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.
Luke 2:40
Jesus’ life gave the evidence of being filled with the Spirit. He grew (euxanen, refers to his physical growth), became strong (ekrataiouto, refers to his spiritual growth), was filled with wisdom (refers to his intellectual growth), and was an object of the favor of God (refers to his growth in His perception of God’s will).
Wisdom and God’s favor indicated the guidance of the Holy Spirit on his life. Jesus, like any child, developed from an infant to a toddler to a young child. He learned to sit up, crawl, walk, and finally to run. He learned to eat and talk. In many ways he was probably a typical child. Yet he was sinless in nature and certainly had unusual wisdom for his years, as the next section reveals.
How early can a child know that He is called of God? I know of one man who said that he knew he was to preach that gospel at the age of three. I don’t know if God put that thought in his head or if his mama did. I know, that I don’t even remember age three. I think at age four I didn’t remember age three. But I digress.
If Jesus parents were devout and obedient to Moses’ direction, Jesus was taught the Scriptures at an early age and He was taught morning, noon and night. He knew whose Child He was for at age twelve, He told Joseph and Mary that He “must be up and about His Father’s business.” After that we know nothing about His life until He was about thirty years of age when John baptizes Him and introduces Him as the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, except that He became subject to His parents.
The Lesson is…
There is a lesson to be learned here for parents and children. If parents will lovingly guide their children in the Word of God and trust that God has His guiding hand upon them, they will never forget the Word that is planted in their hearts.
Children will respect the loving care that their parents give them whether they act like it or not. Parents, don’t give up on your children. Continue to teach them the Word of God. You must, more than counter-balance what the world teaches. Don’t let TV be their teacher. Not everything seen on children’s programs is their ABC’s. In this I do not digress. Amen.
