The Obscure Season

Jesus was invisible the first thirty years of His life.  From Bethlehem to Egypt to Nazareth, He traveled before He was old enough to have memory.  Exactly what He did in those Nazareth years we can only speculate.  We know He was known in Nazareth as the carpenter's son.  Being the son of a carpenter, He learned His father's skills.  Jesus lived out those days in obscurity.  No one paid Him any attention.  What His hometown gave Him was a quiet place where the Scriptures and the Spirit could ready Him for the three turbulent years between His baptism and the cross.   It would be an error to regard the Nazareth years as unimportant years.  While we do not know exactly what happened in this small village, it was not beyond the scope of the divine plan.  

Actually, what took place in Nazareth, though invisible to the human eye and the eye of history, made Jesus ready for the encounters, the trials, and the teaching moments which were going to unfold on the road.  We all have Nazareth moments in our spiritual journey.  We go through seasons when it seems nothing is happening and we are doing little more than treading water.  It is not a moment for giving up on ourselves, or God, but a moment for continuing to do those things which keep us in step with the One who is walking before us.  

At some point in those obscure Nazareth years, the Father spoke saying, "Son, it is time."  So, will it be for us.  There will come that moment of stepping forward into some opportunity to express love and care which makes faithfulness in the season of being made ready so very important to what God wants to do through us.