Searching With Great Anxiety

In the Gospel reading for today, Mary and Joseph are heading home from celebrating the Passover in Jerusalem, when they realize that they haven't seen their son, Jesus, for awhile. They are tired and they are already thinking about what they have to do when they get back. Joseph probably has some orders to fill that he had to put off for the trip. Mary has a ton of laundry, and there will be shopping to do, because everyone knows that you get rid of everything in the larder before you leave. 

They ask around, thinking that surely he has just been hanging out with his cousins a bit further ahead in the caravan, but no one has seen him. This is concerning. Mary starts to feel that knot in the pit of her stomach, that every mother has felt at least once. 

Joseph is trying to be the calm one, but it is becoming clear that no has seen him and they are going to have to retrace their steps. 

They head back to the Temple, which is the last place they remember seeing him, and as they walk around one of the porticos they hear a familiar voice. It is a young voice. Not the voice of a child, not quite the voice of a man, but they look at each other in immense relief. It is the voice of Jesus.

So many times I think we search for God everywhere, in people, trends, movements, in the world. We don't know that we are seeking God, only that part of us that is restless. Our hearts truly long for the One that made them from eternity, for Himself. We just don't always know it.

We have to turn, or return, to the New Jerusalem, the bride, the Church, if we are to have Peace, We will search everywhere, but when we go to the Father's House, we will find what our hearts desire. There we will find peace, and truth. Our hearts will leap at hearing your voice at last. We are finally in your presence. 

We come in, like Mary and Joseph, and hear that voice, and at first we can't quite make out what He is saying, but the tone and the speech is familiar. We move toward it, and as we come all the way in, there He is! Body and Spirit, teaching and astounding us! Our joy is so great!!! We realize that it wasn't Him that was lost, but ourselves. We are back in the house of the Father, and we are in the right place.