REFLECTIONS

Beyond All Reason

For three days Joseph and Mary searched anxiously among family and friends. “Have you seen Jesus? Have you seen Jesus?” They asked everyone. No one had.

Joseph may have feared the worst. “Oh, my boy!” remembering the joy of Jesus working beside him in the shop; of that trying night in Bethlehem when they found no suitable room for his birth; and of those troubling thoughts months earlier when he considered breaking his engagement to Mary for conceiving a child not his own. 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. 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.” (Matthew 1:20-21)

God asked Joseph to stand by his bride to be, to love, honor, and cherish her. And beyond all reason, he did! Those months of waiting felt as long for him as they had been for Mary. The girl he loved moved away for months, leaving him alone in faith to prepare their home. When she returned—oh, those difficult questions in people’s minds. Joseph knew the answers, but the answers were beyond all reason to those who asked them.

Joseph believed the angel’s explanation. The message made sense to him because he believed God was the maker of all things—the heavens and the earth, the air and the seas, the dry land and all living things, and the forces that hold it all together. And Joseph believed the prophecy—a virgin would be with child and his name would be Jesus. Now at age 12 with an insatiable thirst for understanding, Jesus had not only grown physically, but in knowledge too.

“Thirst for understanding?” Joseph might have wondered. “Maybe Jesus’ thirst for understanding is the reason he didn’t join them on the journey back to Nazareth?” Hoping to find him there, Joseph and Mary hastened back to Jerusalem. After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. (Luke 2:46-47)

Joseph isn’t mentioned again after he and Mary found Jesus in the temple courts. But just as God selected Mary for a very special role; He selected Joseph for a special role too. Not for building skills, or for being a consummate husband or a model father. God selected Joseph for his faith and obedience. He did what the angel of the Lord commanded him—

even beyond all reason.

You are the light of the world,

Richard +

www.reflectingthesavior.org.

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