What would you do if your fiancé told you a story that sounded like a lame excuse? Nothing made sense to Joseph anymore after seeing his fiancé returning from her recent family visit, three months pregnant. Pregnancies usually serve as physical evidence that a man and a woman had sexual relations. Claiming otherwise would be foolish, which is why Mary’s pregnancy is still controversial today. A woman getting pregnant without a guy being involved – why would God do such a thing?
Joseph was confused. It pained him to think that Mary would go behind his back with a secret relationship, dishing a lie to explain away her pregnancy, and then asking him to marry her to cover it all up.
In sleepless nights to follow Joseph would wrestle with the prospect of putting Mary’s life on the line if her pregnancy out of wedlock became publicly known. After agonizing over his decision, he finally considered quietly breaking the engagement. Anticipating Joseph’s reaction, God sent His angel. In a dream God’s messenger confirmed that Mary had in fact told him the truth.
600 years before these events transpired, Isaiah wrote down a famous prophecy [Isaiah 7:14]:
“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”
The Lord has sent prophets and angels to broadcast His intentions so that we can recognize a sign from God when there is one. “A virgin bears a child” is a prediction fulfilled. Nonetheless, despite angel accounts and prophet proclamations, it still requires faith to believe Mary. We know that Joseph believed her. Similar to Joseph, we too have a choice to make. Would you take that leap of faith and believe the story of Christmas to be true?
And everything’s a fairy tale
Generations come and go, and this still holds true:
God is faithful and He saves.”
Songwriters: Basically Two, Bill & Evelyn Snyder
Thought Of The Day 