If you had a chance to live a stage of your life over again, what age would you go back to?  Would you want to be an infant, a college student, a young adult, a school child?  Would any of you want to live your adolescence over again?
 
My son Ben is on the verge of becoming a teenager.  This past week at church he had a TWELVE ceremony marking his journey from a child to a teen.  The service focused on Luke 2 and the record of when Jesus was twelve.  I started thinking about the reality of what it must have been like for Jesus to be twelve.  It caused me to develop a deeper sense of appreciation of what Jesus went through for me.
 
I'm absolutely convinced that there is nothing Jesus wouldn't do to save me.  He was even being willing to become a teenager!  Can you imagine the Creator of the Universe going through puberty?  He chose it.  He did it for you and me.  Pimples and hormones and all the changes didn’t sway His willingness one bit.
 
As I thought about Jesus at twelve, I knew He could manage those years because He had everything He needed to know about facing the storms of adolescence in the Word of God.  When it came to his changing relationship with His parents, He both respected them and challenged them.  When Mary and Joseph found Jesus after a hectic four-day search, Mary began to scold Him.  "Son, why have you treated us like this?  Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you (Luke 2:48). Jesus was quick to answer with a few questions of His own: "Why were you searching for me?" he asked.  "Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father's house?" (Luke 2:49).  The scripture tells us that He went home with them and was obedient to them.  Teenagers still need the home of their parents even though they are becoming independent thinkers and are developing self-reliant skills.  They aren't ready to leave the nest quite yet.
 
What about the hormonal challenges?  The world has taken the enlightened position that all teens are going to have sex anyway, so just give them protection.  Jesus took God's position and understood that although His body and hormones experienced a maturing preparedness to have sex, it didn’t mean that it was the right time for sex.  His sexual maturity was an opportunity to practice purity on a new level.
 
I wonder what peer group Jesus hung around with.  We saw in Luke 2 how comfortable He was around adults.  Usually the teens that adults enjoy do not get much recognition from their peers.  Was Jesus lonely during these years?  Did His friends appreciate the way He was always fair and cheered for His friend to win rather than compete against him?
 
The scripture doesn't give us a lot of details about Jesus’ life.  As John said there was a lot that Jesus said and did that had to be left out (John 20:30).  What the Bible records for us is that Jesus did go through adolescence.  He did it for us.  There is nothing Jesus wouldn't do to save us.  We are that precious to Him.