ers." The incident furnishes evidence of a wellspent boyhood and
proof of unusual attainments.[264]

The amazement of Mary and her husband on finding the Boy in such
distinguished company, and so plainly the object of deference and
respect, and the joy of seeing again the beloved One who to them had
been lost, did not entirely banish the memory of the anguish His absence
had caused them. In words of gentle yet unmistakable reproof the mother
said: "Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I
have sought thee sorrowing." The Boy's reply astonished them, in that it
revealed, to an extent they had not before realized, His rapidly
maturing powers of judgment and understanding. Said He: "How is it that
ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?"

Let us not say that there was unkind rebuke or unfilial reproof in the
answer of this most dutiful of sons to His mother. His reply was to Mary
a reminder of what she seems to have forgotten for the moment--the facts
in the matter of her Son's paternity. She had used the words "thy father
and I;" and her Son's response had brought anew to her mind the truth
that Joseph was not the Boy's father. She appears to have been
astonished that One so young should so thoroughly understand His
position with respect to herself. He had made plain to her the
inadvertent inaccuracy of her words; His Father had not been seeking
Him; for was He not even at that moment in His Father's house, and
particularly engaged in His Father's business, the very work to which
His Father had appointed Him?

He had in no wise intimated a doubt as to Mary's maternal relationship
to Himself; though He had indisputably shown that He recognized as His
Father, not Joseph of Nazareth, but the God of Heaven. Both Mary and
Joseph failed to comprehend the full import of His words. Though He
understood the superior claim of duty based on His divine Sonship, and
had shown to Mary that her authority as earthly mother was subordinate
to that of His immortal and divine Father, nevertheless He obeyed her.
Interested as were the doctors in this remarkable Boy, much as He had
given them to ponder over through His searching questions and wise
answers, they could not detain Him, for the very law they professed to
uphold enjoined strict obedience to parental authority. "And he went
down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but his
mother kept all these sayings in