Dear family,
As Christmas is just one day away I wanted to share an interesting perspective into the Christmas story that we all know and love.
About a year ago I was living in Northern Michigan, and I began writing something every morning or night, whenever I found the free time.
I created poems, prayers, allegories, and short stories. I wrote a couple of different stories labeling them “Broken Love Stories”. Which planted the thought in my head one night…
“How did Joseph respond to Mary being pregnant?”
I couldn’t shake the thought. It was bouncing around absolutely everywhere.
I sat at my computer and wrote a modern telling of how I thought the conversation would have looked like, comparing it to what scripture says, and what historians believe the cultural context was in the background of the story.
I sat back and looked at it, and it really shifted my perspective of Mary and Joseph’s marriage. I am a firm believer that no marriage is good, but it can be God-honoring.
When to sinner’s are joined together in a covenant with the God of the universe, there is bound to be hurt, selfishness, and a large amount of brokeness that will be ever-present every day.
Now, take a look at Mary, as soon as she had Gabriel share with her what would be happening, she left to go see her cousin Elizabeth. She left town fast.
Put yourself in her shoes, her family, her friends, and the most important person in her life her fiance would absolutely hate her. From the outside perspective, she had slept with someone, not Joseph whom she had already pledged her life to, she also had to live with the fear and shame of being stoned to death, as was the consequence of adultery back in those times.
She had a lot on her plate. You could say she held the weight of the world on her shoulders. When she came back home she must have been showing a bit of a baby bump, so she couldn’t hide it any longer.
She had to tell him what happened.
It says in Matthew 2:19 that Joseph was a just man and that he didn’t want to put Mary to shame, so he was going to divorce her quietly.
That’s no small detail. Back then divorce was a bigger deal than it is today. So to say that Joseph would rather divorce Mary and walk away from her shows how hurt and confused he must have been when she told him that she was pregnant with the son of God.
My dear friend and brother in Christ had the amazing opportunity to lead our house church this past week in studying the Christmas Story, and when we started to talk about how he was going to go about it, he brought up this short story I had written up about a year ago (we had talked about it months beforehand.) he asked if we could create the short film to start the conversation.
I said absolutely. Below is the short film we made so you can see it for yourself.
My prayer is that you would watch it and start to think a bit differently. Whenever you read any story in the Bible, really stop and think, what were the characters thinking? why would God do it this way?
Press into these questions, sit and talk with God about them. You’d be surprised how God reveals His character all throughout the Bible, He wants you to know Him better, don’t ever get into a comfortable mindset of “I know God, who He is, what He does, I’ve got this covered.”
You will never fully understand God. That is a beautiful reality, always search to know Him deeper and deeper each day, this relationship you have with Him is the most important thing you can possess.
I leave you now, I pray the Gospel and your relationship with Jesus Christ is very real and evident today, and don’t get too distracted with all the presents underneath the tree tomorrow morning…
-Mitchell
