Families are like stones packed together on the banks of a stream. When you scan the stones from a distance, they look a lot alike. But when you get down on your knees and examine them closely, you see their individual colors, grains, chips, faces, and angles.

When we celebrate one special family, the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Like a collection of stones viewed from a distance, this family looks like a lot of other families. It is loving, care-giving, and nurturing; its members balance work, home, civic and religious obligations, and they cope with stress and anxiety.

Luke 2:41-52 is read for Holy Family Sunday (the first Sunday after Christmas) and gives us a close-up look at a very special family. This pericope is the only story in the Gospels that tells about the childhood years of Jesus. Bible experts cite several reasons why Luke included it.

One reason offered is that of pointing to the similarity between the childhood of Jesus and that of the Old Testament prophet Samuel, who spent time in the temple of Shiloh and about whom it is said that, like Jesus, he grew in wisdom and strength (1 Samuel 2:26). Another is to show that Jesus was a precocious young man, who deeply loved and closely studied the law of Moses and who could discuss it intelligently with experts in the law.

Other experts suggest that Luke uses the story to remind us of Joseph's special features. He is Jewish, and belonged to the royal house of David (Luke 1:27). He lived in his hometown of Nazareth, in the area called Galilee (Luke 2:39). A carpenter by trade, Joseph and his wife, Mary, not only raised Jesus, but cared for other children as well (Mark 6:3). Each year Joseph took his family to Jerusalem, a trip that was part religious obligation, part family vacation.

Some experts note that Mary, like Joseph, was a Jew. She came from the same hometown, Nazareth in Galilee. Her family betrothed her to Joseph at the usual age for Bible times, probably early to middle teens (Matthew 1:18). Her surprising pregnancy put her at great risk (think of the stoning today of pregnant, unmarried women in some societies). Joseph almost did not marry her, but changed his mind when he learned that the pregnancy was from the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:19-20). And Mary had a prodigious memory (Luke 2:19; 51). She most likely supplied many stories about Jesus to the apostles and evangelists when they began preaching about her son, Jesus the Christ, and writing their gospels about his life and ministry.

The Holy Family played a very important role in the faith of Jesus' first followers. In fact, some of these first followers loved the family's special features so much that they wrote additional gospels in the second and third centuries. The Protoevangelium of James, for example, identifies Mary's parents as Joachim and Anna, and tells stories from her own infancy and childhood. The Infancy Gospel of Thomas also tells many imaginative stories about Jesus and his childhood playmates.

As we focus on Jesus and his earthly family, we call to mind that Jesus, the Son of God, extends the boundaries of kinship and welcomes all of us who believe on him into the family of God (Mark 3:35).