On Sunday the sermon picked up with Joseph's side of the story. Joseph was engaged to sweet Mary and things were going along just fine. Their marriage was upcoming and Joseph had a career as a carpenter. Life was good.....or...so he thought. One day Mary comes home to inform him that she was with child. He knew that it couldn't be his and that meant, according to law, that Mary could be stoned to death. I am sure that Joseph was very confused, angry and hurt. He was left with an enormous decision to make. Would he announce Mary's secret and let her deal with her punishment? Or, would he have mercy and divorce her quietly? Either choice would be difficult and at this point he had no obligation to Mary. Even if he divorced her quietly there was no guarantee that her family would accept her back in her condition. Joseph chose to divorce her quietly, leaving her fate to God - but God intervened. God told Joseph to stay with Mary, that God himself was in control of this situation and He would make the situation right. Joseph now had a bigger choice...to trust God or to go along with his own plan. Thank goodness Joseph chose to follow God.
God did not promise to make Joseph's life easier, He merely promised to be with Joseph. Mary and Joseph's son was to be named "Emmanuel" meaning "God with us." That was God's message to Joseph and all of the rest of us that God is with us, now and forever. He walks beside us in whatever comes in life.
Now, let's go a little deeper. Why did God choose to send Jesus to earth, especially in that very strange way? I mean, Jesus could have come with great grandeur to a wealthy family with tons of fanfare. God's people were expecting a king. God didn't need to send Jesus that way. Jesus came to earth perfectly. He came to humble people, among humble surroundings. His life was built upon helping the poor and the sick. He saw each person for who they were, He didn't scoff at them because of past choices and mistakes. He met them where they were and lifted them from their situation. He does that for us as well. God loves you just the way you are but He refuses to leave you that way. We were all living our own lives before we accepted Christ. We got by, no big deal. But God saw that there was so much more potential in our lives. He could have just left us alone, let us fend for ourselves, but like any good parent, He wanted to give us more than we could give ourselves. Thank goodness. He takes those good things in our lives, job, marriage, children, and relationships and makes them richer, better, more than we could ever imagine.
God is with us. God is here making our lives richer and more meaningful. He is here to celebrate with us in the good times and grieve with us in the sad times. Our lives are forever changed when God becomes a major player in our story. Before God is with us we are in control or as I sweetly remind my husband "I'm the boss." I don't know about you, but I LOVE being in control. When Matthew and I got married there were some very interesting moments as I had to give up control over the little things, like, how the towels are folded, and how the closet (both his and my clothes) are organized, and <good grief> the shoes left in the floor. Now that Matthew and I have been married for two and a half years, I have come to give up control of many things and just be grateful that he is folding the towels, that the clothes are IN the closet, and that we both have shoes with no holes. Life has changed very much. God changes our lives like that too. Matthew said on Sunday "God comforts the disturbed and disturbs the comfortable." I struggled with this statement for a while, mostly because I wasn't exactly sure how to take it. After some discussion and clarification, here is what I came away with. God miraculously is able to calm us and comfort us when we are in times of need. God gives us understanding and peace just when we need it most. But, we don't hurt all of the time. There are good times, great times even. Times when things are going perfectly. When those times come we humans tend to take back the reins of control and take life upon ourselves. It is just when we get comfortable being in control again that God reminds us that He is in control and sometimes He turns our plans on their head to remind us that He is there and in control. Please don't misunderstand this thought...none of this is necessarily based upon sin. Joseph's life was not turned upside down because of sin that he had committed, but instead it was God showing that He was in control. If Joseph just trusted Him that He would work all things out for good. Imagine what would have happened if Joseph had not trusted God. Joseph was not punished because of a sin that He had committed. He was simply being lead by God to something greater than he himself could have created. God does that in our lives as well. He takes our humble (or not so humble) plans and makes them into something greater - usually into something that we could never have imagined doing for ourselves.
God sent Jesus to earth to be with us, to make us into something greater, to take our plans and make them more wonderful than we could ever think. That brings us peace. Peace of knowing that God is in control, that He is thinking of us, and making us more like Jesus than we can make ourselves. He didn't just leave us in our state of selfishness, He brought us out to transform us into something beautiful. His our comforter, transformer, peace giver. Emmanuel. God with us.
If you were wondering what PEACE may look like...here is a visual representation courtesy of Samson:
Have a very blessed and merry Christmas, and may peace be with you!
~Jennifer
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