Over the last month many of us have probably heard the story of the birth of Christ. Whether it was in church, from Linus' spotlighted moment in "A Charlie Brown Christmas," or in a Christmas card or some other holiday paraphernalia. Now that the season is officially over, I wanted to pick up where the story has left off. It made sense today to start reading my bible at Matthew 2:13, just after the magi had left and gone home (toting with them all the leftover garland and stale candy canes). Starting in verse 13, we see the angel of the Lord directing Joseph to pick up all his belongings and move to Egypt, about 200-300 miles away. This wasn't a short donkey ride down the road. This is like Joseph, his wife, his newborn child, and all their belongings trekking it either on foot or donkey from LA to San Francisco or more familiar terms to me, Nashville to St. Louis. This would take weeks. But this isn't what really jumps out to me about the latter part of chapter 2. The second journey, after the death of King Herod, is even more ridiculous. Joseph is again directed by an angel of the Lord to get up, take his family and belongings back to Israel, yet another couple hundred miles backwards. But wait..it seems God didn't know/remember that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod. So he instructed Joseph, through an angel of the Lord to withdraw to the district of Galilee to a town called Nazareth, about 70 miles out of the way. This seems so counterintuitive. How could an omniscient God forget that a dangerous king, a potential threat to the unfolding story of Christ the Savior, was reigning in Judea? The inconspicuous answer lies in the final verse of the chapter. "So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: "He will be called a Nazarene." This nonsensical journey, this crooked path was all to fulfill something most likely unseen and unknown by those on the journey. It was to accomplish something much larger that neither Joseph or Mary could have ever planned. As I look at 2011 and dream of resolutions and reflect on 2010 at those things planned that I did not accomplish, I pray that I am a faithful journeyer willing to accept that all the scattered dots of my actions will one day be connected by a perfect crooked line that leads to a purpose much larger than anything I could have ever conceived on my own.
1 comment:
Love this. My pastor did a sermon on this specific part of the story a few weeks back which I enjoyed because it's part of the story not often brought up during the Christmas season. Here's to a faithful journey and trusting that all the dots will connect in time!
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