Today's reading from the LEC Family Advent Devotional is Matthew 1:18-25 -- the story of the angel appearing to Joseph, Joseph accepting Jesus as his son, and the announcement by the angel that the world will refer to Jesus as Emmanuel -- God with us.
Joseph is the forgotten character in the Christmas story. We love to depict Mary and the beautiful song that she sang during our Christmas programs. Our Christmas memories are of angels, shepherds, kings, the animals, and the innkeeper. And yes, we remember Joseph walking with Mary on a donkey to Bethlehem and then in the manger after the birth of Jesus welcoming the shepherds. But Joseph is usually a figure standing off to the side while our focus is on Mary and the baby Jesus. And only in Matthew are we reminded of the difficult decision that Joseph had to make. His fiance was with child! He had every right to break off their engagement and, or even worse, stone her for what appeared to be a betrayal of their promised betrothal. But God sent an angel to Joseph in a dream to tell him that he was chosen to be the father of Jesus. He did what the angel told him and he took Mary as his wife.
So today as you think about the special role that Joseph was chosen to be in this story, I hope you'll listen to the following songs that are about Joseph's story:
I Am a Carpenter (Joseph's Song) by Cherolyn Klosner-Lane
Joseph's Song by Michael Card
And my favorite... A Strange Way to Save the World by 4Him
These concluding thoughts that I found in a blog by Dr. David Winkle sums up so well the special role that Joseph played in the life of Jesus: "At Christmas let us at
least remember the faithfulness of Joseph. He was the second person to
be let in on the secret of what God was doing, and he committed his life
to it. He was faithful, and he was the only person there to welcome
Emmanuel into our world. Like him, may we be faithful and commit our
lives to this unfolding story. May we, like him journey to Bethlehem to
welcome Emmanuel into our world."
Today's Advent Photo of the Day
#emmanuel #pictureadvent
This is a photo of a cooper's shop. It reminds me of many of the tools that a carpenter uses and of the vocation that Joseph taught his son, Jesus. The ironic thing about this trade is that the tools of a carpenter were the same tools that were used to construct the cross on which Jesus would hang.
No comments:
Post a Comment