Well, considering the circumstances of Jesus birth and their charge in bringing Him up, can you imagine how they felt about losing track of Him?
How they must have felt they let God down by not being more conscientious?
“...by not being more conscientious?”
I agree - but I guess I was sticking up for Mary and Joseph about the difference in cultures back then. Not like today where Mom and Dad take the subway into the city and lose track of junior!
Now - would a perfect believer in God, and knowing that Jesus was pre-ordained by God to do great things (which Mary knew) - would they have even been anxious? I suppose so, but I could also see them saying something like “...but we know that God is watching over you and there was nothing to worry about.”
Of course that is our every-day dillema. Yes, God is watching over us and taking care of us, but bad things still happen. So we are anxious sometimes. Maybe the key there is “sometimes”; it IS good to be anxious and prudent sometimes, but not to always be living in fear.