Today’s reading was about the boy Jesus in the temple, from Luke 2:41-52. The symbol is a saw, and I found myself wishing while doing the reading that in this instance, the company that produced this resource had included some additional information to go along with each reading, similar to what we had with the Jesse Tree. Most of the symbols are fairly obvious, but this one I had a difficult time connecting. What I decided to go with, as far as talking about it with the children, was focusing on the part of the story where Jesus returned with His parents and was submissive to them. This would have included, I assume, helping Joseph out with his carpentry. The saw is also a good point of contrast with Jesus being in the temple doing His Father’s business, versus the occupation of his adoptive father.

I don’t know for sure what the company who produced this was getting at with the saw, so if anyone has an insight that I overlooked due to exhaustion, I’m all ears. I think that my explanation worked OK, though, and the children were satisfied with it, so it was still a successful reading!