Advent 2: God asks questions

The second time Jesus visits the temple is as a young teenager when he stays behind "in the temple courts sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions." (Luke 2:46). I love this image of a young person full of curiosity and an openness to learning, asking questions that would probably be quite different than the usual ones the teachers of the law mulled over.

Young people look at things differently and have a perspective that can be both quite refreshing and disconcerting at the same time. In my experience knowing the right questions to ask can open up new avenues of discovery and experience. It often involves letting go of previous assumptions...as I said last week 'we're all addicted to your point of view'!

May this advent be one in which you feel liberated, and perhaps even playful and youthful enough, to ask questions, even strange and unusual ones. You never know where they might lead. Perhaps they may open our eyes enough to see God's presence in young people, in their values, their culture and activities which can sometimes seem bewildering to us. God himself was a teenager once too!

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