Consider That!

“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

“But after he had considered this...”

Considered what?

What was it that Joseph was mulling over in his mind?

Looking back at the earlier part of the chapter we find that after careful consideration Joseph, the man Mary was to marry, was preparing to quietly divorce Mary.

But God would not let this man’s fear or doubt cause the Christmas story to be rewritten.

An angel visited Joseph in a dream and his will became aligned with Gods.

I wonder what we would do.

After all, Mary’s story was quite remarkable and Joseph was a devout man, presumably knew the Law and the Prophets and yet certainly could not have found it happening before anywhere in Gods’ law.

What was he to make of it?

I wonder how many times our ‘considerations’ have caused us to miss the unfolding plans of God in our own lives.

We think to ourselves, perhaps just as Joseph did, this can’t possibly be God.

And yet, we know by the rest of the story that it was indeed God moving in a way most any ‘rational’ and ‘considerable’ person would find hard to believe or accept.

God intervened for Joseph but He may not always intervene when our faith is overcome by our ‘consideration’.

As we are in this remarkable season of Christmas perhaps it is a good time to reflect on any decisions we may have made or are ‘considering’ that would allow our faith to be squashed while our reason wins out.

Consider that!