December 1 / December 2 / December 3 / December 4 / December 5 / December 6 / December 7 / December 8 / December 9 / December 10 / December 11 / December 12 / December 13

December 14

Matthew 1: 18-24

¹⁸ This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

²⁰ But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹ She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

²² All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ²³ “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

²⁴ When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.

It’s hard, isn’t it, when life doesn’t go the way we expect or want?  We can dream as much as we like, hope and plan for the future and things can change in the blink of an eye.

 Joseph appeared to have life organised – he was betrothed to a beautiful young woman,  he was qualified as a carpenter and earning enough to plan for the home that he and his wife would live in when they married.  The future looked great and he had much to look forward to and then everything changed!

Mary dropped the bombshell – she was pregnant!  Now she could explain what had happened as much as she liked,  but it was a lot to take in.  What was the family going to say?  The town?  Much as Joseph loved this girl,  he was shattered.  He couldn’t marry her but he could see that whatever he did,  life was going to be very hard.  At the back of his mind there must have been some niggling doubts.  She had told him about her encounter with the angel and the message from God and he’d like to believe her,  like to trust her,  but really?  Was she telling the truth,  impossible as it seemed?  Or was she covering up a relationship with someone else.  What a nightmare!

And God did for Joseph,  the only thing that would help him to understand and accept and make the right choices.  He spoke to him through his messenger.  He didn’t expect Joeph to believe Mary,  he didn’t demand blind faith.  He had a word for Joseph himself,  which gave the man hope and courage and resolution in the face of the difficult situation he never dreamt he would face.  God offered the still small voice of calm.