Tuesday, December 22

After (Joseph) 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 to be 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

“Don’t be afraid, Joseph. I know I’m asking the impossible. Breaking all the comfortable cultural and familial rules sounds incredible. I know this is hard to believe; I know your reputation will be in tatters; I know your business will suffer. I’m asking you to believe something no one else—except Mary—will believe. I’m asking you to act on your belief. Just trust me.”

Has God ever called you out of the believable, the normal, the expected, the comfortable? Maybe no angel appeared but you knew as surely as Joseph that this was something BIG. You knew that—if you obeyed—friends and family wouldn’t understand. Financial security might be threatened, social standing be in jeopardy. 

But God’s call—often a whisper—may not be as grand as a career choice or a move across cultures. It may be as simple as inviting a Muslim or Hindu or gay neighbor to join you for Christmas dinner. Would you be misunderstood? Or would you too see miracles?

…Forget convention and marry the overshadowed girl.
Forget plans and flee to a place
as alien and angular as its monuments.
Forget your fears and journey again through the desert
to the occupied country of your father.
Forget home and settle instead in the land of prophecy…
Who acts so boldly on what he knows in himself
against the evidence of everything he sees?Who believes so humbly that he is chosen, too,
for a role that makes miracles possible?

                                         —Author Unknown