Matthew 2:19-23 (NIVUK)
19 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 20 and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.’
21 So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, 23 and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene.
And so ends Joseph’s story, a story of being on the move to Bethlehem for the census, then to Egypt to escape Herod, and then to Nazareth rather than where he hoped to go. A story where he never gets to where he wanted to go. These verses are the latest occasion in which Joseph is featured. I wonder if he felt a failure as a parent, never able to provide the home he wanted for his child? Sometimes, like Joseph, we might feel as if we haven’t achieved in life what we set out to do, but I wonder if, like Joseph, God looks on our lives and sees that we have done exactly what he wanted us to do.
Help me Father to see and prioritise your will in my life, and to value your opinion above my own.
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