'He went down to Nazareth, and was subject to them.' That is all
that is told us about eighteen years, by far the largest part of the
earthly life of Christ. Legend comes in, and for once not
inappropriately, and tells us, what is probably quite true, that
during these years, Jesus worked in the carpenter's shop, and as one
story says, 'made yokes,' or as another tells, made light implements
of husbandry for the peasants round Nazareth. Be that as it may, 'He
was subject unto them,' and that was doing the Father's will, and
being 'about the Father's business,' quite as much as when He was
amongst the doctors, and learning by asking questions as well as by
hearkening to their instructions. Everything depends on the motive.
The commonest duty may be 'the Father's business,' when we are doing
manfully the work of daily life. Only we do not turn common duty
into the Father's business, unless we remember Him in the doing of
it. But if we carry the hallowing and quickening influence of that
great 'must' into all the pettinesses, and paltrinesses, and
wearinesses, and sorrows of our daily trivial lives, then we shall
find, as Jesus Christ found, that the carpenter's shop is as sacred
as the courts of the Temple, and that to obey Mary was to do the
will of the Father in heaven.
What a blessed transformation that would make of all lives! The
psalmist long ago said: 'One thing have I desired of the Lord, and
that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life.' We may dwell in the house of the Lord all
the days of our lives. We may be in one or other of the many
mansions of the Father's house where-ever we go, and may be doing
the will of the Father in heaven in all that we do. Then we shall be
at rest; then we shall be strong; then we shall be pure; then we
shall have deep in our hearts the joyous consciousness, undisturbed
by rebellious wills, that now 'we are the sons of God,' and the
still more joyous hope, undimmed by doubts or mists, that 'it doth
not yet appear what we shall be'; but that wherever we go, it will
be but passing from one room of the great home into another more
glorious still. 'I must be about my Father's business'; let us make
that the motto for earth, and He will say to us in His own good time
'Come home from the field, and sit down beside Me in My house,' and
so we 'shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.'