The purpose, he explains, is ….

The purpose, he explains, is this: people’s response to Jesus, the father’s most precious gift to us, shows their heart’s true condition.

A godly older woman named Anna, who always was praying in the temple, stepped up, adding that Jesus was the heaven-sent redeemer, the one who would ransom and restore his people, a message she kept sharing with others from then on (36-37).

The wondering parents finished everything God’s law prescribed in the temple that day and returned to Galilee, to their own town Nazareth, where Jesus continued to grow and become strong, filled with wisdom, and God’s grace was upon him (39-40). Little did they know that their humble and despised hometown would become world-famous, lend its name forever to their firstborn son, Jesus the Nazarene, and become a praise theme: “I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene/and wonder how he could love me, a sinner, condemned, unclean/How marvelous, how wonderful/ and my song shall ever be/how marvelous, how wonderful is my savior’s love for me.”