Not just\u00a0Boxing Day, Return Unwanted Gifts Day, or Two Turtle Doves Day, the second day of Christmas has enormous theological importance. It reminds us that when the angels returned to the realms of glory and the shepherds to their fields, Mary and Joseph still had a child to parent.<\/p>\n Why is it significant\u00a0that Jesus experienced childhood? It\u2019s not a question that the Bible dwells on. The two infancy narratives in the canonical Gospels (Matthew 2<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Luke 2<\/a>) don\u2019t add much about his upbringing. Matthew tells of the visit of the Magi to a boy no older than two, followed by the young family\u2019s flight to and return from Egypt. The\u00a0parallel chapter\u00a0in Luke reports on the circumcision of an eight-day old Jesus and then his encounter (as a near-six week old, if I\u2019m reading\u00a0Leviticus 12<\/a>\u00a0correctly) with Simeon and Anna in the Temple. Before Luke even reaches the end of that chapter, Jesus is already twelve. When Matthew\u00a0picks up the story<\/a>, Jesus is being baptized by John; his age is unspecified, but it seems clear that he is an adult. (Assuming there\u2019s any narrative continuity from\u00a0Luke 3:21-22 to the next verse<\/a>, he was about thirty.)<\/p>\n What happened during the intervening years? One\u00a0lesson here seems to be that we ought not to speculate too much. But if one error is to fill in the gap by\u00a0telling tales<\/a>\u00a0about a somewhat malicious, miracle-working tot, another is to act as if the Christ child sped up time and moved almost overnight from Nativity to ministry. However paltry the details (left for Mary to treasure in her heart, it seems), it is significant that Jesus had growing up to do. He \u201c\u2026grew and became strong\u201d (Luke 2:40 \u2014 v. 52 adds that \u201c\u2026as Jesus grew up, he increased in wisdom and in favor with God and people\u201d)\u00a0as he lived with his parents and \u201cwas obedient to them\u201d (v. 51).<\/p>\n But even more,\u00a0the fact\u00a0of Jesus\u2019\u00a0recognizably human childhood reminds us that our Savior, though \u201cbeing in very nature God,\u201d nonetheless \u201cmade himself nothing\u201d (Phi 2:6-7) and shared in our humanity. God truly was with us, even as a child.<\/p>\n![\"Polidoro,](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/168\/2017\/12\/Holy-Family-with-Angel.jpg\")
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