Jo Bower's Blog

Matthew
1:24

When Joseph
woke up, he did what the Angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home
as his wife.

(Also see
:Matt 1:20, Luke 2:22, Luke 1:30-38, Luke 2:8-16, Matthew 2:12, Luke 2:13-14 for
more examples as the basis of this devotional.)

It’s the
week between Christmas and the new year. This has been one of those transitional
years. The death of the most loved member in my husband’s family, changes in life
stations, and a major move destroyed the way we have always done things. It has
been difficult for all.

So, with
the exception of a lovely Christmas Eve with my side of the family, (a year or so
further down the road to recovery from our own series of losses) this year Christmas
has mainly been a spiritual event for me.

In my silence,
it occurred to me each participant in this saga has at least two things in common:

They listened,

Then

They responded.

The
prophets of old listened. Mary listened. Joseph listened three times. The inn
keeper listened. The shepherds listened. The Wise Men listened. And the saga we repeat
each year is the story of how they responded.

Oh God, teach
us to listen. Help us relearn how to listen first to you instead of what surrounds
us.  

Listening
and responding to God’s way often looks odd to our market-categorizing culture.
We won’t always fit into the prearranged categories of society.

Part of the
story we tell recalls the remarkable ways the people involved stepped away from
how society expected them to react. (Let’s not get carried away with this and cultivate
Christian oddity just to flaunt society. That misses the point.)

The point
is God is faithful. God will call us out. If we will listen, and respond, God will
do some remarkable things in our lives. And that leaks out into the society around
us.

God, teach
me to listen.