The Life of Jesus Advent Calendar - Day 5: Joseph and Mary lose Jesus

Introduction

I love this passage (Luke 2:41–52). It always makes me smile, and I think it must be a great comfort to any parent who has ever lost their child in a supermarket. Joseph and Mary travelled a whole day before realising Jesus wasn’t with them, and then spent another three days searching for him. With hindsight, we can easily say, “Well of course he was in the temple, in his Father’s house,” but would any of us have assumed that in their situation?

I think this is a beautiful early glimpse of Jesus’ relationship with his heavenly Father. Even in his youth, he is conscious of his divine identity and mission yet, in keeping with God’s good design, he returns with Mary and Joseph and submits to them. This is the Son who is fully God and fully man - already about his Father’s business, yet perfectly obedient in day-to-day family life. It’s a precious reminder that the glory of Christ is seen in his humble, faithful obedience from the very beginning.

Assembling your stocking

This stocking is a little more fiddly, as there are more smaller parts involved. You will want to lay out the elements that make up the temple until you are happy with them, before stitching anything down.

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I chose to add some brick details to the temple to make it look like a building, but you can just stitch around the edge of it to keep it in place if you like. You can layer the rest up in whichever way is easiest for you, but here's how I did it.

I used black, dark grey and grey to form the crowds in the temple, to give an illusion of depth. I start by placing the darkest layer in the bottom centre of the temple, and stitch it in place. I then added the doors either side of this crowd, and once the doors are in I add a bit more brick work to the top of the temple. I then build up the crowd using the remaining layers, adding Jesus last. There's a diagram of how this all fits together in my template, and you can scroll through these images.

Finally add in Joseph and Mary, and you're done! I don't give either of them faces as I imagine them facing the temple - Joseph exasperated and Mary pointing to Jesus.

You can watch a brief video of this stocking being assembled on my Facebook or Instagram.

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