Mind the Gap: Luke 2:41-52

I’ve been thinking a great deal lately about “the gap,” both because Sonlight starts its first Gap Year program in September, and because being on summer staff at a camp is usually an “in-between” moment. A gap: between the platform and the train, between the dangerous edge of the crevasse and the safe side, between the expectation and the result.

Jesus’ life has a significant gap in it. In Luke chapter 2 we read about Jesus’ phenomenal interview with the teachers in the temple at age 12. Then, we get 18 years of silence.

Why did Jesus not begin ministry right away? The Son of God could do whatever he wanted. Wouldn’t his ministry have been all the more noteworthy, all the more glorious, if it began as soon as he crossed into legal adulthood at age 13, then went on for ten years or more?

The gospel according to John describes Jesus’ ministry as a long period of “listening to the Father’s words.” So presumably the Son of God was told at some point in his adolescence, “Just wait.” No, child, it’s not time for that yet. Just wait.

Call to mind a time when were you told that you had to wait. It might have been in expectation of something exciting, something important. Perhaps you had to wait to receive something—a bicycle, a car, a piercing. Perhaps you had to wait before you went somewhere—a concert, or a vacation. Perhaps you had to wait for someone—a first date, or a visit from a friend. What big thing did you have to wait for? Think of it now.

Luke 2:52 reads that “Jesus increased in wisdom and life, and in divine and human favor.” He got something out of the long gap between his emergence and his ministry. He was being prepared.

For the next few mornings, I’ll invite you to meditate on What Happens In The Gap, the time when we’re not yet doing what we think we’re called to do. And maybe from our experience and from scripture we can gain some insight into how God grows us.

Would you pray with me? Spirit of God, descend upon our hearts. Make every pause, every stop, every gap into an opening for your light to shine through. Make it so in the name of our Light, Jesus Christ. Amen.

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