Images of a young Jesus

Images, paintings and pictures in holy cards of a young Jesus abound. We always wonder what he was like as a toddler, a young boy and as a teenager. The only story we have of him in these years is when he was lost at the temple, aged 12. But these are a few images we don't see often. The first one shows him helping his father in the carpenter's shop, but the image also foretells the last few hours of his life, when he was forced to carry the cross to Calvary, on which he was crucified.

The second one shows him as a toddler with his mother while she is putting the laundry on a line to dry. Like any mischievous boy, he may have been playing with something when this image was reproduced, but then again, he may have been praying or connecting with His Father, while His mother kept admiring Him and keeping everything in her heart.

This third image again takes us to Jesus imagining his last few days, holding so tightly a crown of thorns, and the nails by which he was nailed to the cross. He who was born a King, will be crowned, however with sharp nasty thorns that made him bleed, and this after an excruciating flogging, 39 lashes according to Roman law. Then he was crucified on a cross as a sacrificial lamb. Yet he endured the suffering and never complained. Behold the Lamb of God, Ecce Agnus Dei.