Luke 2:40-52

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.

⁵²Jesus grew up to be a man, and as he got bigger he became very wise too. God was happy with him, and so was everyone that knew him.