²⁰ So in the course of time Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son.^(A) She named^(B) him Samuel,^[a](C) saying, “Because I asked the Lord for him.”

Hannah Dedicates Samuel

²¹ When her husband Elkanah went up with all his family to offer the annual^(D) sacrifice to the Lord and to fulfill his vow,^{(E) 22} Hannah did not go. She said to her husband, “After the boy is weaned, I will take him and present^(F) him before the Lord, and he will live there always.”^[b]

²⁴ After he was weaned, she took the boy with her, young as he was, along with a three-year-old bull,^[a](A) an ephah^[b] of flour and a skin of wine, and brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh. ²⁵ When the bull had been sacrificed, they brought the boy to Eli, ²⁶ and she said to him, “Pardon me, my lord. As surely as you live, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the Lord. ²⁷ I prayed^(B) for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. ²⁸ So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life^(C) he will be given over to the Lord.” And he worshiped the Lord there.

3 See what great love^(A) the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!^(B) And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.^{(C) 2} Dear friends,^(D) now we are children of God,^(E) and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears,^[a](F) we shall be like him,^(G) for we shall see him as he is.^(H)

²¹ Dear friends,^(A) if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God^{(B) 22} and receive from him anything we ask,^(C) because we keep his commands^(D) and do what pleases him.^{(E) 23} And this is his command: to believe^(F) in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ,^(G) and to love one another as he commanded us.^{(H) 24} The one who keeps God’s commands^(I) lives in him,^(J) and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.^(K)

¹⁴ One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira^(A) named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart^(B) to respond to Paul’s message.

The Boy Jesus at the Temple

⁴¹ Every year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover.^{(A) 42} When he was twelve years old, they went up to the festival, according to the custom. ⁴³ After the festival was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. ⁴⁴ Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. ⁴⁵ When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. ⁴⁶ After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. ⁴⁷ Everyone who heard him was amazed^(B) at his understanding and his answers. ⁴⁸ When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother^(C) said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father^(D) and I have been anxiously searching for you.”

⁴⁹ “Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”^{[a](E) 50} But they did not understand what he was saying to them.^(F)

⁵¹ Then he went down to Nazareth with them^(G) and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart.^{(H) 52} And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.^(I)