Christmas Meditation: Building a Home for God

This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about : His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. 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.”All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus. Matthew 1:18-25

Matthew’s story of Jesus’ birth focused on Joseph.  He was a man who was “faithful to the law,” a good God-fearing Jew.  The kind of guy who would be at synagogue every Saturday, marry a virgin, and refuse to trim the edges of his beard. He wasn’t the kind of guy who would get his girlfriend pregnant and suffer a shot-gun wedding.  Not the kind of guy who would be raising his wife’s child.

Yet he was the kind of guy who was faithful in another way.  He had the merciful loving kindness of his God. The kind of mercy that refused to add to the public disgrace of a young girl.  The kind of faithfulness that hears the voice of God and remains celebate with the wife he married until the birth of her son. He could be trusted to give the most important name in the world “Immanuel”-God is with us-to that boy. 

The family in the stable wasn’t perfect.  No family is.  We live in a world where the 2 parent, 2 child, picket fence life has all but disappeared.  Joseph’s story is worth telling again and again.  By his faithfulness, by his obedience, by his mercy, he created a home for God himself. 

Helene