Everything is changing all the time.  Are you as tired of it as I am?  Recently I changed my e-mail address and living to regret it almost every waking moment of my day.  I’m tech-challenged at best on good days.  If it wasn’t for my wife, I’d still be using a long string connecting two tin cans and happy as a lark!  But I’m doing it.  Plowing forward, I hope.  Hitting speed bumps in lots of wrong places, I fear.  Checking, double-checking.  Very trying indeed!

In reading Matthew 2, it really impressed me how special Joseph was.   We know little about Joseph of the Christmas story.  What we do know is amazing.  His godly character shines as bright as the sun on the clearest of cloudless days.  What sets him apart from the likes of me is his willingness to change, to uproot his life, to switch course completely when he knows God is leading in a different direction.  For example, Caesar says it’s tax time, so Joseph and Mary take the exhausting journey to Bethlehem from their hometown of Nazareth.

There wise men arrive to worship the newborn babe and to bring precious gifts of gold, incense and myrrh.  Matthew 2:11 says that the Magi find the holy family in a house, no longer a cave.  Joseph and  Mary moved into a more permanent dwelling.  And Joseph was working and providing for his family.  Life was looking better for them, change was not so much in the air.  Until…

Herod gets wind of this new King, a threat to his rule. A threat he will not tolerate.    Once again, change has knocked at Joseph’s door in the form of an angel in a dream.  Seemingly, without even a question, packs up the family along with all their earthly possessions (especially the Magi gifts that will see them through the transitions ahead).  They don’t move to a nearby town, they leave the country and head for Egypt.

Change…change…change!   Was it hard for Joseph?   Think of all they’ve already been through.  But God called.  An angelic dream has been given.  Joseph was tuned in to the Lord.  Dreams came.  Joseph heard, heeded, and headed out of town.

Change is not easy for any of us!  More than ever, we need to stay close to our Lord.  Hear Him in His Word, daily.  Talk with Him, often.  Like a healthy vine that stays well-watered and fed,  stay very near the good earth of Jesus.

Hebrews 13:8–‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever’.  That says it all!  Amen?  Amen!

Prayer:  Lord, give me strength to make all the changes I need in my life.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.