Keep What You Cannot Explain
"When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.” “Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he was saying to them. Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart."
— Luke 2:48-51
Families from the north made the trip to Jerusalem for Passover each spring. They travelled in a large company of relatives and neighbours, which is how a child could go unnoticed. Luke notes they were a full day along the road home before they started looking. The boy was twelve. They did not find him until the third day, sitting among the teachers in the temple courts. Their home town lay well to the north, days of walking from the city. The word Luke uses for what she did afterwards, "treasured", means to guard something and keep it safe. It is not a word about working something out. Luke adds one more line about the years that followed. The boy grew in wisdom and in stature, and in favour with God and with people. After that Luke places him in no scene until he begins his work at about thirty. Some of what God does lands long before it makes sense, and you keep it anyway.