Advent day 4: God makes you crazy

Matthew 1:18-19

18This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

Mary had come to talk with Joseph, the one man she could trust with this crazy sounding information: Yes, indeed, she was pregnant with God's son. Yes, she was still a virgin.

How in the world could Joseph believe this? There's faith and trust and then there's a bomb like that. I can't quite imagine how the conversation went. There was probably some blaming, accusing, some yelling, surely some tears and at the end of the night Joseph had made up his mind about his wife. Yup, she had lost it.

He knew what the people would say and the way they would make her feel. But ultimately, divorcing her quietly was in his best interest. This was a woman he loved, and married. If they thought she was crazy, what did that make him? Yes, he was righteous as Scripture tells us, but that doesn't take away his doubt. It came down to simply believing that the God that was silent for the last several hindered years impregnated your wife or your wife had just plain gone crazy. Well, when you put it that way...

I love this little part of the story because it shows, as all the Bible does, the human nature in all of us to say "God can't do that. He would do it this way" or "Naw, God doesn't do that anymore." We would so much rather believe in a logical, well mannered God than a God who goes way outside the box and drives us out of our minds.

Hey God,

Allow me to trust when you sound crazy. Don't let me shrug it off, but let me act on your crazy love.

Amen.