Gone away

 At that time Jesus came from Nazareth (1:9) 

I left home at 12. Quite Biblical that I suppose. I don't mean that I moved out and got a job, but a few short weeks before my 13th birthday I was left alone in a dark and damp courtyard with nothing but a large trunk for company. I had been sent to boarding school. After that day, I spent more of each year away from home than at home. I survived the shock, in some ways flourishing, in other ways diminishing, but it marked a moment of change. And such moments are the blows that form a life. In a way, my life has been a single, dedicated, boarding school recovery programme, unravelling the damage and releasing the blessings.

Here it is Jesus who leaves home for the first time - to be baptised by John. I wonder if that's what his parents had hoped for him. Did they wave him off from the front door knowing he was off to see the wild man in the desert, or were they expecting he would go to Jerusalem to join the scribes and fulfil his early promise? I suspect the latter, and it is hard not to feel some sympathy for them.

As we ponder our students who are a few short weeks into their University experience, we must feel some sympathy for the parents too. The youngsters were sent away with such high hopes. Crockery bought, bags packed, cars crammed to overflowing, pictures posted online. New friends, new studies, new adventures lay just around the corner. Now, for many, it is so much dust. 

I have only one thought: out of such experiences are lives built. Hold them close in mind, in committed contact, in prayer, and, when they come through, you may well find they are stronger, more aware of their good fortune, possibly even wiser and kinder. Let's trust it is so - and be always on the alert to catch any that look like falling.



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