Week 3
Waiting for Guidance with Joseph…
Matthew 1:18-25; 2:13-15, 19-23
He was a carpenter, and able to read plans for building ploughs, houses, carts. And he was engaged to be married, and making plans for the wedding, their house, and their life together. But now Mary was pregnant . . .
A SCANDAL in the eyes of the town folk and the Law. Joseph’s reason kept him on the side of the town and the Law; his goodness guarded her life, thus he decided to leave her quietly (because it wasn’t his child she was carrying). Joseph was a good man, obedient to the Law until his obedience was shattered by a dream! Now he wasn’t used to reading dreams–visions of the night which evaporate like mist in the clear light of day. Carpenter’s plans are concrete, square, touchable, predictable. The dream troubled his goodness, his safety, his respectability:
THE SCANDEL WAS EMMANUEL: GOD WITH US!
Joseph repented of his obedience to the Law, took Mary within his embrace, and with her, the Christ-Child, JESUS. He thought he had embraced the unborn, but now his life is held and directed by the tiny Child—
THE MIGHTY GOD, THE PRINCE OF PEACE…
Now he became a refugee, his life guided by dreams. He thought he would build safe houses, but now he is protector of Mary and the Child, a safe presence for God in the violent darkness of the world guided by dreams given by God.
Reflection
How are you allowing Jesus to embrace and direct your life? What risk is God calling you to embrace? Who is God for you as you respond to the dreams God has placed within you?
Christ, Savior of all life, You come to us always.
Welcoming You in the silence of our days,
in the beauty of creation, in the hours of
great combat within, in knowing that
You will be with us in every situation, always,
in our nights, welcoming You . . .