At my godmother’s funeral I got to spend time with cousins that I hadn’t seen for many years. What struck me was that they had changed over the years — more mature, more balanced, more focused. My temptation was to put them in the box of who they were back in the day. It was clear that God’s grace had helped them to grow and they were not who they were. That temptation is common in human nature — we stereotype people in the family, neighborhood, church and don’t take into account the possibilty that they are different. That happened to Jesus in his home town. They said, “Where did this man get all this? What kind of wisdom has been given him? Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary? This serves as a reminder for us to meet people as they are and not as they were.