Jewish families greatly loved their children. When Joseph was directed by an angel to take his family to Egypt, he and Mary traveled many days to keep the child Jesus safe from harm. Children also loved and obeyed their parents. And they learned that listening to God was very important. They heard many stories from the Hebrew Scriptures about people who listened to God—about Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob whose name was changed to Israel, Moses the great leader, and Deborah the judge. They also heard about the prophets who said that a Messiah, or Saviour, was going to come.

The Bible tells us that Jesus had brothers named James, Joses, Juda, and Simon and that he had sisters (see Mark 6:3). Parents like Mary and Joseph would have wanted their children to be wise, and that meant knowing about God. As mother of the family, Mary would have started teaching her children about God when they were little. Joseph would have been expected to train his sons to behave well and to help him with his carpentry work in the farming community of Nazareth.

Nazareth had a synagogue or meeting place where Jews gathered for meetings and to worship God. Synagogues usually had a school where boys learned to read and write in Hebrew. Children would begin by learning the sounds of letters and memorizing words from the Scriptures so they could say them out loud. Words that were often heard in the synagogue, especially on the Sabbath, can be found in Deuteronomy (see 6:4–9). These six verses are called the Shema. They begin this way, "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord." In Hebrew shema means "hear," which is the first word of these verses that were heard in many synagogues and in the Temple in Jerusalem.

Each year a major event took place at the Temple. Jews would travel there to celebrate the Passover season. The Gospel, or "good news," of Luke tells about the trip Jesus and his family made to Jerusalem, when he was twelve (see 2:41–52). During this seven-day celebration, Jewish people remembered God's protection when Moses led their ancestors, the children of Israel, out of slavery in Egypt. The Passover was also a time of thankfulness for the barley harvest.

Huge crowds made the trip to the Temple to attend the feast. Visitors stayed in inns, homes of relatives or friends, or even with strangers. Some slept in tents at campsites. In order to feed all these people, large supplies of vegetables, spices, fruits, and wine were gathered into marketplaces. People could buy dandelions, lettuce, olives, and raisins. Also many animals were brought into Jerusalem to feed people and to be used for sacrifices during the celebration.

Jesus and his family had to travel about 80 miles (128 km.) to get to the festival. Villagers grouped together to form a caravan, or "company," to make traveling safer and easier during the four or five days they would be on the road. Jewish men were required by law to attend the Passover feast at the Temple, and women and children came along with them. When Jewish boys turned thirteen years old, they were expected to go to the Temple feast with the men. Jesus knew that next year he would be old enough to go to the feast.

This year, after his family had finished celebrating and started to return home, Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. At first Mary and Joseph didn't know Jesus was not with the caravan. They traveled a whole day before they realized he wasn't with any of their relatives or friends. They returned immediately to Jerusalem to search for him. Finally, after three days of looking, they found him. He was in one of the outer courts of the Temple, and he was sitting in the middle of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was surprised at how much he understood and at the good answers he gave to questions.

When Mary and Joseph spotted Jesus sitting with the teachers, they were amazed. Mary asked Jesus why he was in the Temple instead of traveling with his family. She and his father had been very worried about him. Jesus responded in surprise by asking his parents why they had been searching for him—didn't they know he had to do what his Father wanted him to do? These words point out something important: Jesus knew that God was his Father and that he needed to do what God was directing him to do. Mary and Joseph didn't understand these words right then, but Mary remembered them.

Jesus returned to Nazareth with Mary and Joseph and was an obedient son. He grew wiser and stronger. The Bible tells us that God was pleased with him and so were the people who knew him.

Jesus was known as a carpenter and as the son of a carpenter by the people of Nazareth (see Mark 6:3 and Matt. 13:55). Fathers often taught their sons the skills they knew. Since Joseph was a carpenter, he would have taught Jesus how to make things out of wood and possibly stone. Carpenters made doors, doorframes, and window coverings for stone or mud brick houses. They cut and smoothed roof beams to support flat roofs made of matted brushwood and mud. Carpenter skills were needed to make stools, tables, and chests. Nazareth had many farms, so Jesus would have known about making yokes for oxen, plows, and shovels, too.

Later, when Jesus was teaching people about God, he told parables or stories that showed he knew about living in a farming community. He knew about planting seeds, good soil, and pulling weeds. He told people to build on rock instead of on sand. And he knew the skills needed to be a good shepherd. But before Jesus began teaching about God, he met his cousin John at the Jordan River, and a wonderful thing happened.

(The account of Jesus' meeting with John the Baptist continues in the next installment.)

This is the Hebrew word shema (shuh-mah'), which means "hear." The Hebrew alphabet has 22 letters, all consonants. Vowels are made by adding dots or dashes. Hebrew is written and read from right to left.

Can you read this sentence the way you would read Hebrew? (Hint: see Deut. 6:4–6)

O, raeH"
, sdrow eseht .... learsI
dnammoc I hcihw
".... yad siht eeht