The Great and Glorious Light

As Americans we often go to great lengths to make ourselves comfortable and forget the fact that, one day, we are going to face our Creator.  We hide in darkness trying our best to keep warm next to little candles that offer little heat and keep our eyes dim.  No matter how hard we try we cannot keep comfortable in the flickering glow of inadequate light. 

Joseph and the Boy

Read:  Matthew 1:18-25

Every so often you hear stories and accounts of major events in the bible and you begin to think to yourself, “Self, what was it like for those people who lived through those days?”  Today I would like to explore that question with you.  I would like you to put on your “sanctified imagination” and explore the life of Joseph.  The man who took the savior child, Jesus, to raise as his own son. 

What was it like for Joseph at Jesus birth?  What would happen if we asked Joseph this at the end of his life?  What would his answer be?  After Jesus is found in the temple, in Luke 3, Joseph, the adopted father of Jesus, is no longer seen in the scriptures.  Maybe he died just as Jesus Ministry began.  Maybe we came to him just after the wedding at Cana (where Jesus turned water into wine).  Maybe we asked him about his story. Imagine we had the opportunity to talk to Joseph, just before he died, about Jesus. What would he say? I imagine his story sounding something like this:

The Shepherd's Story

Do you ever wonder what it was like, for the people in the great stories of the bible?  I often think about them.  Specifically, the people in the bible who get one word, a few lines, maybe even a single chapter.  I wonder what they would say if they were here to tell their story.  How would they say it happened? 

Today, let us think about the shepherds in the field on that night.  If they were before you today what would they say?  I would like to think it might sound something like this: