New Year Goals and The Holy Family
Happy new year!
I hope and pray you have had wonderful Christmas with your family and friends, and an exciting and reflective new year celebration.
The Feast of the Holy Family, is where Jesus was found after the Passover Feast by his parents who had lost track of him for three days (see Luke 2:41-52). There is so much going on in this text contextually.
For instance, the caravan the family was traveling in was most likely filled with family and travelers from the holy family's Nazareth community. This group would have been assisting each other with the care of the children, and it would have been easy to assume another family member, or community member, was lending a helping hand with the boy Jesus.
Another factor at play here is Jesus' age, he was twelve according to the text, most likely nearing his time of becoming a man at thirteen. Because of his age, Jesus could have been traveling with the women up ahead, or with the men who were traveling in the back of the group to keep watch, to protect, and to go at the pace of the women and children up ahead. This would have made it harder to keep up with where Jesus was during the journey.
My favorite element of context in this account is where they find Jesus, in the Temple, most likely in Solomon's Portico according to some scholars. The text tells us, "After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers" (Luke 2:46-47, ESV).
You can hear echoes of Jesus' later words as an adult when he proclaimed, "I say this because she traveled from far, far away to listen to Solomon’s wise teaching. And I tell you that someone greater than Solomon is right here, but you won’t listen!" (Matthew 12:40, ERV).
Jesus was wowing the wisest teachers in the Temple, most likely in Solomon's porch, the wisest man who ever lived, up until Jesus' incarnation. "And he said to them, 'Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?'” (Luke 2:49, ESV).
We can apply several timeless principles from this account to our lives in the new year:
We should travel together as friends and family in 2025, there is safety in numbers, and it does take a village.
Like the holy family, we should be committed to raising up our children in the faith, and living out our faith in our families and with our communities.
We should prioritize "going to the Temple at the appointed times", making time for regular in person corporate and communal worship.
Like Jesus, we should be in our Father's house seeking God, and seeking wisdom and stimulating fellowship with those who are older and wiser than we are.
And lastly, we should commit to grow as Jesus did, "And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man." (Luke 2:52, ESV).
I am praying with you and for you and your families as we begin this new year.
Every new year, I take time to seek God, to reflect on the past year, to pray, to assess, to plan, and to set goals for the new year, spiritually, personally, domestically, and professionally. Would you join me in doing this "new year reflection and planning" this month?
Take some time and ask God to speak to you about the past year and the new year concerning three areas: 1. God, what do you want me to know? 2. What do you want me to be? And 3. What do you want me to do? (Matthew 22:36-40).
Ask God to help you grow in these four areas: 1. intellectually, 2. physically, 3. spiritually, and 4. relationally; praying: God, help me to grow in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man (Luke 2:52, ESV).
Finally, ask God to help you to live an obedient, missional, and transformational life; praying: "God, help me to love you with all my heart, to love my neighbor as myself, and to make disciples of you, living a transformational life" (Matthew 22:36-40, Matthew 28:16-20, and Romans 12:1-2).
May you have a fruitful and blessed new year!
A Prayer for Desiring God, by Francis Xavier: “O God, grant that we may desire you, and desiring you seek you, and seeking you find you, and finding you be satisfied in you for ever. Amen.” (#74., Book of Common Prayer, 2019).
Flourish 365: January is now available! Download Flourish 365, a free #Devotional book for each month, a devotional for each day of the year, by subscribing here: https://www.robbiepruitt.com/ #BibleStudy #bibleverse
