Christmas Eve at Immanuel always begins by singing Once in Royal David’s City. But in our 1982 hymnal, a stanza was missing. Thanks be to God, it was put back in our current hymnal. It starts like this: “For He is our childhood’s pattern.” Children are to imitate Jesus; He obeyed Joseph and Mary, and He’s our pattern. But we’re still missing a stanza! There’s one more the church doesn’t seem ready to sing. It goes like this…
Read More“Why have You done this?” Mary is not the first mother to say that. And it’s understandable. Her boy was missing. Three minutes would be horrible. Three days, that’s nearly unimaginable. When Mary and Joseph do find Him, I’d like to know exactly what her tone was like: “Son, why have You done this to us? Look, Your father and I have sought You anxiously.” Quite appropriately, the NKJ capitalizes the pronouns for Jesus. It looks all respectful: “Son, why have You—the exalted One—done this to us?” I’m not sure it’s spoken so gently. She maybe says it more like you would. It sounds like she’s accusing Jesus of sin….
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