Luke 2:13-51

¹³Then suddenly a big mob of other angel messengers came from heaven, and they all praised God and said,

¹⁴“God, you are real great there in heaven. And here on the earth, your people are quiet and happy. You are real good to your people.”

¹⁵Then the angels went back to heaven, and the men said to each other, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this baby that God just told us about.”

¹⁶Then they got up quickly and went and found Mary and Joseph, with the baby boy in an animal’s feed box, just like the angel said.

¹⁷After that those men went back to their sheep. They told everyone what they saw, and what God’s messenger told them. Everything happened just like he said. So they praised God and said he is great. Everyone was surprised when they heard these things, and Mary remembered them all her life and thought about them a lot.

²¹The law of Moses said that they had to do a young man’s operation on all baby boys as soon as they were 8 days old. So they did that to him, and they gave him his name, Jesus, at that time. That’s the name God’s messenger told Mary to call him, before she started to carry that baby inside her.

²²The Jewish law is like this, a woman’s first baby boy belongs to God. And after a baby boy is born the mother can’t go into God’s ceremony house or do any of their ceremonies for the next 40 days. It is like she is not clean. Then, after 40 days, she has to go to God’s ceremony house in Jerusalem, and kill 2 pigeons and burn them there, and let the smoke go up to God. This will make her clean again for Jewish ceremonies. So Joseph and Mary went to Jerusalem at the right time to follow that law. They took baby Jesus with them.

²⁵There was an old man in Jerusalem called Simeon. He was a good man that lived God’s way, and he was waiting for God to make the Israel people happy again. And the Holy Spirit was with him.

²⁶Before this time the Holy Spirit told him, “You will stay alive till you see the person God will send to help the Israel people.”

²⁷On that same day, as Joseph and Mary took Jesus to God’s ceremony house, the Holy Spirit told Simeon to go there too, so he was there when Joseph and Mary brought Jesus in.

²⁸And Simeon took Jesus from them, and held him in his arms, and he thanked God, and said,

²⁹“Now, God, I can die happy and quiet, just like you promised me,

³⁰because now I can see the one you promised to send. People in every tribe will see him, and he will save them.

³²He will shine like a light for people that are not Jews, showing them new things about you, God. And he will get everyone to respect your people, the Israel nation.”

³³Joseph and Mary heard the things Simeon said about Jesus, and they were surprised.

³⁴Then Simeon asked God to be good to them, and he said to Mary, “This kid is going to ruin a lot of people in Israel, but he will help a lot of others. He will point people to God, but they won’t understand, and they will argue against him.

³⁵In that way they will show everyone what they really think. And Mary, later you will be real sad. It will hurt, like somebody is stabbing you with a big knife.”

³⁶While Joseph and Mary were talking to Simeon, a very old woman called Anna came along and saw Jesus, and she thanked God for him. She called out to all the people close by and told them about Jesus, that he was the one they were waiting for, and she said that God sent him to help the Jerusalem people. Anna’s father was Phanuel, and he belonged to the tribe called Asher. She was 84 years old. A long time before this Anna was a young married woman for 7 years, but then her husband died. After that she stayed in God’s ceremony house all the time, telling the people God’s words. She prayed all the time, in the day time and at night, and often she didn’t eat any food because she was praying.

³⁹After that, Joseph and Mary finished doing everything their law said they had to do. Then they went back home, to Nazareth, in Galilee country.

⁴⁰And the baby started to grow big and strong, and he got wise too. And God was good to him.

⁴¹The Jewish people have a ceremony every year called Passover. Every year Joseph and Mary went to Jerusalem for that ceremony.

⁴²When Jesus was 12 years old they went to Jerusalem, like they always did, and they took Jesus with them.

⁴³After the ceremony finished they started to go north, back to their home in Nazareth. They were with a lot of other people going north, and they thought Jesus was somewhere in that mob. They thought, “He will come to our camp when we stop, at sundown.” But Jesus didn’t come to their camp at sundown. He was still back in Jerusalem. Mary and Joseph looked for him among their relatives and all that mob camping on that road,

⁴⁵but they couldn’t find him. So they went back to Jerusalem and looked for him there.

⁴⁶They looked for him for 3 days, then they found him in God’s ceremony house. He was sitting with the teachers there. He was listening to what they were saying, and he was asking them questions.

⁴⁷The people there listened to Jesus too, and they were very surprised at the things he said. He understood so many things, and he knew the answers to all their questions.

⁴⁸His father and mother were shocked, and Mary said, “My son, why did you do this to us? Me and your father have been worried about you. We have been looking everywhere for you for 3 days.”

⁴⁹Jesus said, “Why did you look everywhere for me? Didn’t you know that I have to be in my father’s house?”

⁵⁰But they didn’t understand what he meant by those words.

⁵¹Then Jesus went with them back to Nazareth, and he always did what his mother and father told him to do. And his mother always remembered these things and thought about them.