Every time I read this account, I am struck by how Joseph must have felt, when he first learned that Mary was pregnant. Before the angel was able to reveal the divine nature of this pregnancy in the dream. Joseph had taken Mary as his betrothed, to protect her, and to care for her. To learn of this unexpected pregnancy after he had been away from her, must have been devastating both in terms of the feelings he had for her personally, but also as a matter of perceived personal failure in protecting and shielding her.
Yet even in the midst of this turmoil, his first thought was to still protect her, and her child by divorcing her quietly so as not to expose her to shame, or to place her in danger from the authorities of the time who would have persecuted her. He may not have realized the depth of it in those first moments, but the commitment was there. The angel of the Lord, in revealing God’s plan to Joseph in a dream, solidified that into greater depth and action, and Joseph took Mary into his home.
There are times in each of our lives when we struggle with our commitments. Perhaps it is in our personal relationships, or our attitude toward our jobs, or even our relationship with God. Under the right combination of conditions, we can sometimes lose sight of the very things that normally are most dear to us. It is in these times, that we need to step back, and to open ourselves to Gods word. We may not necessarily receive a vision in a dream, nor hear an angel speak to us, but God can reveal to us His desires nonetheless. The trouble is, that in these circumstances, when we have truly lost our grounding, the last things that we want to do are to wait, or to allow a voice from the outside to address us. We usually want to take control and work our way through things. No doubt Joseph wanted to feel a little more control in his situation, everything he had planned must have seemed to be crumbling to dust. Yet, the reality was that an unalterable foundation of hope, and salvation beyond anything he could have imagined was in fact being created within Mary right at that point. This would come to fruition because all of his fears, all of his doubts, yielded to the message he received from the God he knew as his personal foundation for all else in his life. He almost certainly did not know how things were going to eventually work out, but that didn’t matter. The one thing he did know for sure was that God guided his life, and that he trusted in this for all things.
Time and again this trust that he had in his Creator, proved to him that it was well placed. Mary gave birth to Jesus, even if it wasn’t in the Inn he hoped they would be in. The angel warned them about Herod’s plans and so saved them all from the kings wrath as they fled into Egypt. He watched his son, born of the union with God grow and mature in wisdom and stature. All these things because he trusted in what seemed an impossible path, but one that God led him to, and that was all he needed. It is all that we need. In this season of celebrating the birth of Christ as man, I hope that we also celebrate the hope and providence that brings for our own lives when we welcome Him in.
The Deacons Bench 