When Mary and Joseph saw Jesus sitting here, with Rabbis coming all
around Him, they were greatly surprised. But His mother asked Him why
He had stayed behind, and said, 'Thy father and I have sought Thee
sorrowing.' Jesus said to His mother, 'HOW IS IT THAT YE HAVE SOUGHT
ME? WIST YE NOT (DID YOU NOT KNOW) THAT I MUST BE ABOUT MY FATHER'S
BUSINESS?'

And now He went back with her and with Joseph to Nazareth, and obeyed
them, exactly as He always had done. We do not know much more about
Jesus when He was a boy. But we do know that as He grew taller, He
'increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.'




CHAPTER IV

JOHN THE BAPTIST

You remember about the child that was called John. Zacharias, his
father, and Elisabeth gave John to God directly he was born. They
never cut his hair, and they never let him drink wine, or eat grapes,
or eat raisins. That was the way they did in those days to show that
he belonged to God.

When John was old enough to understand, he gave himself to God. And as
he grew older, he made up his mind that he would leave his home and
friends, and go and live in the wilderness; and his food there was
locusts and wild honey. Locusts are like large grasshoppers, and poor