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Good morning.
It’s so rewarding watching children grow and develop. Most parents will remember their baby’s first tottering steps and will have listened as their child spelled out words with painful slowness.

We think of Jesus as being the perfect child, but there is one example, not of disobedience, but of his lack of consideration. According to the story in Luke’s Gospel, it happened when Jesus was about 12. The family had been to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover, and on the way back his parents assumed that Jesus was with the caravan. It was not until the end of the first days’ journey that they realised their son was missing. Mary and Joseph hurried back to Jerusalem. They found Jesus sitting in the temple, calmly talking with the elders. When he was reprimanded by his mother for causing them such worry, his response was that he had to be busy with his father’s work – and he didn’t mean Joseph, his step-father. The story says that Mary did not understand, but stored these things in her heart.
I’m not surprised that Mary didn’t understand. Being unable to find their child is the nightmare of every parent.

At each stage of development, children exhibit more independence, until possibly the ultimate act of independence; they have their own child. Maybe this leads to another example of an epiphany – when a child really fully appreciates its own parents for the first time!

Lord, help us to treasure our children as they grow. We pray that those who guide them - parents, family and teachers - are given patience, fortitude and wisdom.

Let us pray that our children use their gifts to support those less fortunate than themselves, always acting for the benefit of society and as diligent stewards of our fragile world.
Amen.