In My Father's House

We've asked all around, but he's not here.
And with that, the parents could feel the fear
increase by the minute as they searched for their child.
The streets of the city were known to be wild,
no place for a twelve-year-old boy.

"Come, Mary, let's search in the marketplace.
Someone there might remember his face.
When we've asked all the vendors and looked in the shops
we'll go next to the Temple, perhaps our last stop.
He's been missing for at least four days."

Joseph felt his heart begin to race.
In the back of his mind he could not face
the unspeakable thought that his son was gone,
so all through the night, until just before dawn,
they walked the streets, calling his name.

Exhausted and broken, both now in tears,
they imagined their worst possible fear.
Kidnapped.  Stolen, to be sold as a slave.
O God, please not an unmarked grave.
And then two strangers walked by.

Said one to the other, "That boy is so smart!
He questions the scholars, knows the Torah by heart.
What other child, at twelve years of age,
could pose those questions like a brilliant sage?
That Jesus is one smart boy."

Joseph and Mary sprang to their feet,
ran through the crowd, crossed the street,
climbed the steps to the Temple door
and then heard the voice of the child they adored.
Jesus was teaching the teachers.

"O, child we have found you.  Yahweh be blessed!
For these four days we have had no rest.
Why have you caused us this terrible fright?
We've searched everywhere, both day and night.
Can you explain why you stayed behind?"

"I had no choice.  I had to stay.
It seemed to me the perfect way
to explore ideas with these learned men.
What better place for me to begin
than in my Father's house?

Later that night, when the child was asleep,
Mary and Joseph tried to keep
their voices low as they spoke of the day,
their fear turned to joy, and the confident way
Jesus thought like a man, not a child.

"His remarkable birth, old Simeon's words,
Anna's delight, what we've seen and heard.
Joseph, my love, more and more we see
how is life is changing, he's destined to be
a man who belongs to God.

"Angel Gabriel's words ring still in my mind,
after all these years, we're beginning to find
that our little boy is not ours alone.
The day will come, when he is grown,
that his name will be known far and wide.

Joseph and Mary slept in peace that night,
knowing that Mary was certainly right.
The Magi's words, that star so bright
came to focus on this Incarnate Light.
Their child belonged to the world!