This year it hit me, it knocked me down like a ton of bricks. Jesus was a human. I know that sounds so silly and you are probably rolling your eyes saying "duh" as you read this. I think this year it hit me as I thought about Joseph and the sacrifice he made in order to take up for Mary and because he was faithful and full of faith as the angel came to him and told him what was going on.
How difficult must it have been for Joseph, knowing that he has never touched Mary in a sexual way and that there is no way possible that this child is his, yet he led people to believe that it was his child. He did everything that he had to do to make this as easy as possible on Mary. He stood by her in the middle of the night when she was sick to her stomach, and in the mornings when she had morning sickness. He tried to help her out when she had outrageous cravings and dealt with her hormonal changes and those times that she was probably not so nice to him. He stood by her as she delivered this child and he held this child, loved this child, and raised this child as if He were his own. As Mary walked through the streets in her last months of pregnancy, together they endured the snickering, namecalling, and gossipping that comes along with teenage and unwed pregnancies.
Think of Mary. A young girl with her whole life ahead of her who was unmarried, and a teenager and pregnant. I think of myself and how hard that would be for me at even 19 years of age. I can't imagine having a child younger than that-- especially not in their time period when she could have gotten killed for being pregnant.
I think of the pain that she must have endured because people are mean. Their snickering is mean. Words cut deeper and are more painful than physical wounds themselves.
I then think to the two of them holding Jesus for the first time. Looking into his beautiful eyes, I wonder if they knew that that tiny infant who cried through the night and who smiled at them for the first time, that he was going to change the world. That those tiny hands and feet would one day not to far off be nailed to a cross so that His death could save the lives of so many people including themselves. I wonder if they had a clue that the young child running and playing in the yard would one day be performing miracles and literally bringing people back from the dead.
As all of your know, I'm not a parent, but I absolutely LOVE children (even my demon kids at the daycare-- for those of you who know about my past semester working at a daycare at school) I love children a lot. As I look into the faces of the children that I know, I can't help but think of what they are going to do when they grow up. I like to guess if they are going to grow up to be athletes, if they are going to go to college. Whos going to be a doctor or nurse or teacher and so on and so forth. I dream big for the people around me and I tend to have big dreams for the people that I love. I see things in people that they dont see in themselves. I love to point out gifts in people when they don't know that they have the gifts. I love to speak truth into peoples lives who have been blinded by lies.
So with all of that being said, I wish that I would have known Mary and Joseph. I think that it would have been really cool to look back and see how they raised Jesus. I wish the Bible told more stories about Jesus as a kid and the mischeif that he got into. I think it would have been beautiful to see Jesus baking cookies with his mom or sawing wood with His dad in the carpentry shop. I think it would have been neat to see him playing in the woods with His friends.
I'm thankful for Mary and Joseph and how amazing they were as parents to raise up a man that was not only 100% human but was also 100% God. That was such a huge responsibility that was placed on their plates when they werent expecting it.
God I thank you for seeing something in Mary and Joseph that them and maybe even the people around them couldn't see. I thank you for placing the life of your son in the womb of a teenage girl. I thank you for the faithfullness of Mary and Joseph to serve you and to follow through with giving birth to and raising Jesus even through the hard times when they didn't think they could keep going! Daddy, help us to not take for granted the sacrifices of those around us. I love you Daddy! =)
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