But today I'm thinking about Joseph. I'm thinking about all the twists and turns his life takes.
At the start of the story, he's engaged to be married. In this culture, that means he's already legally bound to Mary. He's probably building the home that he and Mary and their future children will live in, dreaming of what his family may someday look like.
But then... Mary comes back from a visit to her cousin, and she's very pregnant. She has a crazy story about the father being God. And Joe knows the kid isn't his. He's brokenhearted, confused (didn't he know her better than that?), dreams shattered, but he's going to do the right thing: divorce her quietly, rather than bring charges against her.
But then... he has this dream. And he knows the dream is from God. And he now knows this child is what Mary has said He is -- a child of God, the coming Savior. And he knows he needs to wed Mary quietly. Dreams shift from the quiet family in Nazareth to the responsibility of caring for the Savior and God's Son. And dreams shift to a new place - Bethlehem - because crazy Caesar decreed that they had to go there. Or was it really Caesar's decision? Because the scrolls foretold that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem.
I picture them traveling together - her pregnant, both uncertain about the future. I wonder if doubt crept in, particularly when the only private place they could find for her to have the baby was a barn. I wonder if a midwife came. I wonder if extended family in Bethlehem had heard the story and sat in judgement.
But then... the shepherds arrive with stories of angels lighting up the sky. Affirmation. Confirmation. Wonder. And in a small town like Bethlehem, I'm guessing that the word of the shepherds gets around. Everyone begins to look in wonder at this baby. And Joe and Mary settle down to life in Bethlehem.
But then... the magi arrive, star gazers from the east who knew that a King had been born and came to worship Him and give Him treasure. More affirmation, confirmation, wonder... and riches!
But! The magi had told crazy King Herod. And now Joseph is having another dream... this time an angel is telling him to go on the run with Mary and the baby. Herod is a danger. GO NOW.
Off to Egypt, on the run in the middle of the night. The trip is probably financed by the gifts the magi had brought. Refugees. Far from home. Was this any way to raise the Son of God?
But then... another dream. Time to go home. Back to Bethlehem, near Jerusalem. Wouldn't that make sense for the Savior to be raised within a day's walk of the Temple? But no. There's still a crazy man in power, and another dream tells him: go back to Galilee. To Nazareth. To that first house that you had started to build. To the family that thinks Mary's child is illegitimate. Will they believe the stories?
The last time we see Joseph, he's on a mad hunt to find the boy Jesus who has disappeared in Jerusalem. It would seem that the relatives in Nazareth had fully accepted them back into the family. It would also seem that raising Jesus had some unique challenges!
It was, most certainly, not the life Joseph had imagined while he was engaged to Mary those years ago. Twists and turns. But full of God.
Praying that in 2018, in the midst of the twists and turns of life, we see the hand of God.
No comments:
Post a Comment