He went down with them,… and was subject unto them. — Luke 2:51
Jesus went back to Nazareth, where He remained obeying His parents, and proving in all ways dutiful, reverent, and helpful. He found childhood in a lowly home a large place enough for His divine life.
Browning represents Gabriel taking the place of a poor boy and working for him at his lowly trade, as content as if he was engaged in the highest service. But here is something sublimer than even the poet’s fancy. Should any child, however great his gifts, consider the child–place in a home unworthy, since the Son of God found the Father’s business for so many years in such a humble home? “A life spent in brushing cloths and washing crockery and sweeping floors – a life which the proud of the earth would treat as the dust under their feet – a life spent at the clerk’s desk, a life spent in the narrow shop, a life spent in the laborer’s hut, may yet be a life so ennobled by God’s loving mercy that for the sake of it a king might gladly yield his crown.’