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The marvelous joy of Joseph and Jesus
Saturday, March 19, 2016
Fifth Week of Lent
Luke 2:49
Jesus said to his parents, “Do you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”
When he was just a wee little lad, full of health and joy, his father homeward came one night and said … “Son, where have you been?”
“In my father’s house,” Jesus answered him. Joseph went on with his dinner. The next day he continued teaching Jesus the art of carpentry. But I imagine he did not forget what Jesus said. And I think he knew what Jesus meant. God was as close as the porridge in their small home.
Jesus never apologized for spending time with either father. There was no need. The angel came to Joseph before the birth of his son and gave him peace. Joseph undoubtedly spent lots of time with God. They loved each other. And their son Jesus was blessed in every way. I imagine that as he told his listeners in Galilee that he “only did what he saw his Father doing,” he thought often of Joseph, too.
I want to be a father like Joseph. So do you. Or a mother. Or a friend. In those relationships where God touches me, and I touch my daughter, and she touches her husband, and he touches their son … in those relationships it is a joy to be held accountable by God and each other for our terms of endearment.
What are those terms? They include mercy and compassion, justice and truth, and most of all unconditional love. Commitment beyond conflict, beyond behavior problems, even beyond betrayal.
These are the powers that rest underneath God’s covenant with Abraham, and God’s covenant with David, and God’s covenant with Joseph, and God’s covenant with us. The foundation of our lives is the covenant we have with God.
Today is a day to honor Joseph, the father of Jesus. And we cling to those coattails, too, as we find our own way as parents of one kind or another, learning to love out of strength rather than need. When God makes you strong, you are strong indeed. Then the stuff of earth holds no threat. There is no fear in love.
There’s a loyalty, Lord, that’s deeper than mere sentiments, and a music higher than the songs that I can sing. The stuff of earth competes for the allegiance I owe only to you, Lord, the Giver of all good things. So if I stand let me stand on the promise that you will pull me through. And if I can’t, let me fall on the grace that first brought me to you.
http://www.christiancounselingservice.com/archived_devotions.php?article_id=1471
