Reflections

A Christmas Reflection.

At the centre of the Christmas story is the Christ-child, JESUS, God in flesh come down to earth.

 

 

Christmas is a unique opportunity to lift high the name of JESUS.  To join the shepherds and His parents in worshipping Him, our Master and King, the Ruler of the universe. 

 

 

But the drama of God becoming man also involved two human participants.  Two very ordinary people named Joseph and Mary – Joseph maybe already in his twenties, Mary most likely just a young teenager. 

 

 

What’s the truth about Jesus’ birth?  What lay behind this great drama being played out in the lives of these two people?  Let’s pause a moment to reflect on God’s prior work in Joseph and Mary’s lives, and how they became faithful co-workers with God in carrying out His eternal plan. 

 

 

First there was Mary.  Young, innocent and poor.  Most likely illiterate, a simple virgin known for her purity and innocence but not for any outstanding human ability or skill or knowledge.  No doubt she would have been well acquainted with the daily demands of repetitive household duties. 

 

 

Mary was faithful – faithful at home, faithful to her vows to Joseph, and faithful to God. 

 

 

She was one of those true Israelites who eagerly waited for the Consolation of Israel, the coming of God’s promised Messiah.   

 

 

Her heart was right with God.  She had found favour with God.  He knew her heart, that she would work with Him in carrying out His eternal plan on earth. 

 

 

One day Mary received an unexpected heavenly visitor, the archangel Gabriel.  God had commissioned him with the task to inform Mary about a divine and miraculous change that would soon take place in her body, that would alter the direction of her life forever. 

 

 

Mary was both unprepared and also prepared to hear this news – unprepared and shocked – who could ever have been ready to receive such news? – but also prepared.  Prepared by God, with a prepared heart, ready to surrender to God’s higher will and purposes.  She responds to God’s messenger: “’I am the Lord's servant .... ‘May it be to me as you have said.’” (Luke 1:38) 

 

 

Then there was also Joseph.  He and Mary were betrothed to each another.  They had already exchanged vows of faithfulness for life to each other.  Soon they would be man and wife.

 

 

However, when Joseph found out that Mary was already pregnant, he drew the obvious conclusion that she had somehow strayed and fallen into sin.  So he made immediate plans to divorce her though in a kind way in order to save her name and reputation from being totally besmirched. 

 

 

This is how Matthew explains Joseph’s action: “Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.” (Matt.1:19)

 

 

However, Joseph never carried out this plan.  God stood in his way.  Again He sent an angel to explain to him what had really happened to Mary. 

 

 

Joseph’s godly character is quickly seen in how he believed the angel’s message.  Instead of believing his feelings, he chose to believe the incredible, the impossible. 

 

 

What’s more, Joseph didn’t dilly-dally but took immediate steps to follow through with the instructions he had been given by the angelic messenger.

 

 

A truly righteous and honourable man!  A chosen vessel.  In faith he took her to be his wife, refusing to allow the whispers of village chatterboxes to dissuade his heart from obeying God.  He remained Mary’s faithful partner through all Jesus’ formative, developmental years – nurturing, loving and providing for his wife and his family.

 

 

God knew the hearts of Joseph and Mary.  He knows the hearts of all mankind, and honours those who honour Him.  He has greatly honoured this simple, ordinary pair – Joseph and Mary.  At this Christmas season, we join in honouring them as we praise God for the miracles He performed through their faithfulness and surrender.

 

 

Mary and Joseph – two ordinary human beings – without any human traits that would have caused people’s heads to turn in their neighbourhood.  Nothing special about their looks, their status or any other human characteristic. 

 

 

The only thing that set them apart was their faithfulness and their obedience to God.  What God revealed to them, they believed and followed.  Mary did not question God’s wisdom – “God, what in the world are You doing causing me to become pregnant out of wedlock?!  Don’t You understand how much shame this will bring upon my entire family for years to come?!”

 

 

None of the above.  Simply: “God, whatever, however – we’re ready!”  God had chosen a couple who could be trusted.  He had prepared their hearts.  And He guided and watched over their commitment as they faithfully carried out each task He gave them to do in the ensuing years. 

 

 

Should it be any different with you and me?  In the eyes of most people, we also are simple, ordinary people, without great fame or fortune. 

 

 

But the longing of God’s heart for us is that we will also be His faithful co-workers in fulfilling His purposes – in the ordinary and humble tasks of everyday family and home life. 

 

 

Does God find within our hearts a genuine openness and availability to be about the work He has entrusted to us – on that daily, repetitive level?  Mary and Joseph were ready to do the extraordinary for God because they were already faithful in the ordinary.  May that also be true of us.

 

 

God calls us – husbands and wives, mums and dads – to be His faithful servants in the everyday, the ordinary.  Then as He chooses, He may open before us – usually unexpectedly – opportunities, perhaps even just one in our life-time, to play a special part in His extraordinary service.

 

 

Will we be found ready for the “great works”, as Mary and Joseph were, through faithfully doing the “good works” of today – in the behind-the-scenes, common places? 

 

 

Who knows what unexpected challenges and changes God may be preparing for us in the New Year 2010?  Of two things we can be certain for the New Year – that as we walk with Him into the “good works” of today, we can trust Him to keep us faithful to our ordinary duties and tasks; and that we can also trust Him to enable and empower us with His strength and grace for any extraordinary task that He may be preparing for us, and our beloved children. 

 

 

Rev Graham M. Roberts

 

Equip & Encourage International

 

www.equipandencourageintl.net.au

8^th Dec., 2009

 

"May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation --

 

the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ --

 

for this will bring much glory and praise to God."

 

               -- Philippians 1:11 (NLT)