Mary and Joseph

In Matthew chapter 3, the bible talks bout Mary getting pregnant and Joseph marrying Mary.

Did this chapter in Discipleship two mondays ago, but the story remains in my head till now.....
cuz it's something really interesting about Mary and Joseph that i (we) can relate to now..

Rmmber how angel appeared to Mary and out of the blue told her that she will be pregnant with a child, by Holy Spirit..??

Imagine myself as Mary at that time, i would have freaked out.. cuz culture of that time didnt permit such thing to happen - to be pregnant with a baby when u're not married. it's absolutely unacceptable to be pregnant unless u're married. Mary could have been stoned to death, kicked out from the society, rejected by the people etc etc.. on top of that, she faced rejected by Joseph, her future husband. When Joseph found out she was pregnant, Joseph was planning to divorce her quietly...... imagine the hurts and struggles that Mary would have to go through at that point of time.. if it was me, i probably would have negotiated with God to take the pregnancy away, or blamed God for making me pregnant....... cuz i couldnt bear to go through all the struggles and rejections...
But Mary choosed to obey God... She did not utter a single complaint to God.. She just plainly obeyed.. so what happened next..??

...........THEN.... God sent an angel to Joseph and explained the situation to Joseph.. The angel as God's messenger then asked Joseph to marry Mary instead of divorcing her.. now look at Joseph's point of view.. He at that time, would wanna do what is acceptable to the society and succumb to the cultural norm.. by divorcing a lady who is pregnant before marriage.. Joseph could have either divorced her publicly or divorced her quietly.. but as man of good discernment, he planned to divorce her quietly in order not to bring shame to Mary..... Joseph thought this was the best way out for Mary and for he himself..
But God intervened joseph's plan, what Joseph would have thought as the best plan has to be rejected.... God asked Joseph to marry Mary- something out of the box, not of cultural norm, something absolutely different that Joseph could have never thought of.. if Joseph lives in our modern days now, he probably would have responded like this --- "are you kidding me, God?? this is ridiculous. to marry someone who is not pregnant with my kid??? this is insane *^%#$%^&*(*&.."
But Joseph obeyed as well...

the rest of the stories has been amazing since then - Mary became the mother of Saviour of the world (what a priviledge it is), Joseph and Mary was loved by Jesus, Jesus becoma phenomenal figure of that time, even until today...

though it is a simple story of how Mary became pregnant with Jesus and Joseph marrying Mary.. it taught me two great lessons.. and i am very amazed..

1. When we choose to obey God and abide by His will, everything else will fall into place..
Mary choosed to obey God- knowing she most probably will face rejection by Joseph and the society at that time, but when she obeyed God, God made a way for her.. God eventually sent an angel to Joseph and sorted things out.. in the end, she got married to Joseph and mothered Jesus, something i consider very great blessing and priviledge..
the point here is not whether Joseph did marry Mary in the end, but really------ when we choose to obey God and abide by His will against all odds, God will make a way and everything else will eventually fall into place..

2. We as human might have plans that we think are the best, but when God intervene with our plans and give us another plan that is seemingly ridiculous, do we stil obey or we go our way..??
Joseph obeyed God's plan..
many times, we make decisions according to our judgement of what is best.. but God whose wisdom is above all else, definitely has His way of working things in our lives, even to the point of making us human think our best plan has to be rejected to obey a seemingly-ridiculous God's plan... but hey, God's plan turned out to be the plan ever...!!!!

all this is possible when God intervenes with our lives.. more precisely, when God takes charge of our lives..
what better way to live than to obey Him and to do His will..

i am still very amazed at how Mary and Joseph responded to God's plan..

the storyline is simple but the lessons i learnt about God and us , is simply something beyond what i can fathom..