Boy Jesus at the temple chart

There are some verses that people like to quote when talking about parenting. There’s the less popular now vers of spare the rod, spoil the child. There’s a verse in Deuteronomy about how to talk with your child about their faith, which basically boils down to everywhere, it should be all of your life. Then finally for my random sampling, and the purposes of this verse, there’s the verse talking about how Jesus grew up. It’s right at the end of the Boy Jesus at the temple story, which I’ve recently added into my Bible lessons. That led to this Boy Jesus at the temple chart and an interesting Bible study or Bible what if.

(there are possibly affiliate links in here)

Boy Jesus at the temple chart supplies

You’ll need the Boy Jesus at the temple unit, because that’s where the chart is

Luke 2:52, where it all starts

Prior to being a parent I never particularly thought about this verse much. This was just the weird story where Jesus gets lost at 12 years old and rebukes Mary.

I didn’t particularly notice that verse.

Then I became a parent and started reading all of these parenting books and once blogs came into being blog posts. I saw this verse everywhere.

Like everyone has their take on this verse.

And apparently, now I do too.

Only my take is going to be, asking you to think about it.

Boy Jesus at the temple chart

I’ve been doing Precept Bible studies for years. One of the tools they teach is creating charts as you notice things to compare.

When I read this verse I knew I had to make a chart and think through what it might look like for Jesus to grow in those three areas.

It could technically be 4 areas if you split of favor with God and man into a separate area each.

Some of this is really easy to think about. We’ve all seen a child grow up.

He became taller, stronger, and more capable of helping the family. At 12 years old, Jesus was probably babysitting His younger siblings.

That part of the chart was easy to fill in.

What does it look like to grow in wisdom?

I left it blank and went to the next easiest, favor with God and man.

We literally just read that.

We saw the teachers of the Law at the temple listening to what Jesus had to say, and thinking He was impressive.

I think that is growing in favor, don’t you?

Think about what it was like to have Jesus as your son… He would have always obeyed and always been respectful. Another instance where it’s pretty obvious how that would cause Him to grow in favor.

But, what does it look like for Jesus to grow in favor with God?

I don’t know.

This is an opportunity to talk with kids, let them think what if…

What does it mean to grow in wisdom for God incarnate?

The literal Emmanuel, God with us.

I don’t know. All of my pictures have that space empty because I’m still not sure. I keep leaving blank spaces and thinking, did Jesus grow in His awareness of His power or connection with God?

There are apocryphal stories of Jesus performing miracles as a child.

They’re not included in the Bible because we don’t have any evidence of the books until after 200 AD, compared with the evidence of the synoptic Gospels in 50 AD and I think John in the late 70s or 80s.

But that’s a detour from talking about this chart.

I’m still not sure, and I’d love to know your thoughts on this.

More quick Bible studies for Sunday School

I like studies like this for Sunday School because it gets kids seriously engaging the Bible and working through what it could look like in their life.

• God made you special Bible study
• Body of Christ Bible study
• Cain and Abel sort
• Consequences of Sin chart