REFLECTIONS

Journey to the Cross–First Steps

Linus found comfort with his blanket in toe. The comic strip character represents many young children who find comfort in Raggedy Ann and Barbie dolls, or other soft and warm objects. Mine was a stuffed animal I named Little Lamb. Each night I fell asleep rubbing my hand across its cotton coat and my tiny fingers over its felt-lined ears. I never felt alone with Little Lamb at my side.

Like most stuffed toys, threads binding Little Lamb’s seams became too weak to hold its stuffing and his coat darkened from wear and tear. I cried for Mom to repair it. But she couldn’t. So Little Lamb was cast away and lost to me forever.

It’s seems normal for young children to find comfort in items like my Little Lamb; and there’s little reason to think Jesus’ childhood was different. He was, after all, a normal person. Like us, he probably didn’t recall his birth, its humble setting, or the human nature of his entry into the world. Neither did he remember hearing angelic voices rejoice in the sky, shepherds gathered around his manger, or his mother’s warm breast. His journey through this world began like ours. If he had lived in our time, Jesus would have learned to say Mama and Da-Da in his home setting, learned to read and write in kindergarten and elementary school, and ride a bike with mom or dad encouraging alongside. His childhood was so normal Luke summed the entire period, “and Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man.”

Jesus’ first steps on his journey to the cross were recorded when he was twelve. His family had begun the return home from the Passover Feast in Jerusalem, only Jesus wasn’t with them. In adolescent manner Jesus stayed back without telling his parents. They searched in frantic concern for him; then, “After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. (Luke 2:46-47)

These first steps recorded on Jesus’ journey to the cross carry me back to remember fondly and perhaps longingly about Little Lamb. I could not have known then that one-day Little Lamb would return to my life. Only his name is Jesus, the Lamb of God. And just like the toy lamb that gave me comfort as a little child, I feel his softness and warmth at my side. Because of him I am secure in each day and I sleep comfortably each night. Through him I feel the inestimable love of my Father. But unlike my childhood plaything, the Lamb of God will never wear out or become only a memory.

He lives.

You are the light of the world,

Richard +

www.reflectingthesavior.org

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