The thing is….and just between us…..if Jesus really was the product of an immaculate conception, wouldn’t people have followed the tyke’s every move from birth forward? It seems that nobody knows his whereabouts until he was around 30 (although there was an appearance at age 13 for his Bar Mitzvah.) Something doesn’t pass the smell test.
Does someone want to explain this to me?
Although we aren't told a lot about Jesus' early life, it's not completely unknown. We are told that the family fled to Egypt, and lived there for several years. According to the scriptures, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph and said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” (
Matthew 2:13-14)
Then it mentions the return to Israel from Egypt, in Matthew 2:19-23.
Then in Luke, it says that as the young Jesus grew, he was filled with wisdom, strong in spirit and the favor of God was upon him. (Luke 2:40)
Also, as I think you mentioned, there's the passage of Jesus in the temple, at age 12. It says he was sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions...and all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.
But I think the fact that we aren't told a lot about Jesus' childhood and youth is purposeful. This is just my opinion, but I would say that God wanted us to focus on Jesus' ministry and the very important events that we're told about in the Gospels. There's a scripture that says Jesus did many other things as well, and that if every one of them were written down, there would not be enough room in the world for all the books that would be written.