All of us do it, or at least think it when we haven’t seen someone in awhile. It seems to be human nature to “freeze frame” friends and relatives and their kids in the moment we last saw them. We also do not consider how they have grown, matured and transformed on the inside either. “You can’t go home” is a saying that stems from this “freeze framing” thing we do with our minds.

Jesus went home, back to the place where he grew up from toddler to man. He not only got the “treatment” as above, but they even ridiculed him! He knows how we feel when it is done to us!

Mark 6, The Message
Just a Carpenter
6 1-2 He left there and returned to his hometown. His disciples came along. On the Sabbath, he gave a lecture in the meeting place. He made a real hit, impressing everyone. “We had no idea he was this good!” they said. “How did he get so wise all of a sudden, get such ability?”

3 But in the next breath they were cutting him down: “He’s just a carpenter—Mary’s boy. We’ve known him since he was a kid. We know his brothers, James, Justus, Jude, and Simon, and his sisters. Who does he think he is?” They tripped over what little they knew about him and fell, sprawling. And they never got any further.

4-6 Jesus told them, “A prophet has little honor in his hometown, among his relatives, on the streets he played in as a child.” Jesus wasn’t able to do much of anything there—he laid hands on a few sick people and healed them, that’s all. He couldn’t get over their stubbornness. He left and made a circuit of the other villages, teaching.

What do we learn from this seemingly small detail of Jesus’ life and ministry? Maybe it’s to teach US not to do this to others. Allow people to grow and change in your mind. Assume brilliance and positive growth in others. Stop freeze framing! Listen to their journey and praise God for their testimony of what God has done in and through them! They will be blessed AND you will be blessed by them!

Dear Heavenly Father, We learn more about you and your brief journey on earth. You had brothers and sisters! You dealt with family relationships! You had hometown people you grew up with and remembered you. YOU knew their hearts and minds. It saddens me to think You couldn’t “do much of anything” in your own hometown because of your homey’s ridicule and attitudes about you.
Go with us, help us to be different with our friends and family when we meet. Help us to talk less and listen more. Make us a blessing to someone today! In Jesus Name, Amen