”Your father and I have been very worried . . .” (Luke 2:48)

They were a young couple,

past the glow of first birth,

not yet grown into the knowledge

that children become themselves.

They could not imagine

returning to a home

with no first stumbling steps

from the kitchen to the stairs,

where no dancing footfalls

could be heard, where even

the sullen silence from a child

could fill the room.

So, when they could not find him

in their group they turned back,

three days searching,

sick with fear, silent with each other.

He was there in the temple,

quizzing the elders with his questions,

having already left home in his own way,

surprised they could not see this was his work.