to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed,
who was with child.
Luke 2:5
We know what marriage is, right? After ceremonies that often include white dresses and tall cakes, a legal union is formed.
But it’s much more than that!
Love turns into promises. Promises turn into commitment. Commitments often turn into families. And still there’s more …
As Genesis 2 puts it discretely, “the two become one flesh.” Marriage is designed to be a union of mind, of spirit … and of body … intimately. To use the terminology of today, it is friends (and commitments) with benefits. In its traditional form, that’s what marriage is, right?
But what is “betrothal”?
It was engagement, but it was much more. It was friends and total commitment … but without benefits. It was a union of mind and spirit … but not of body. The two hadn’t yet become one flesh.
So what do you do if you’re an honorable man, like Joseph, when your supposed honorable fiancé turns up pregnant? What do you do? 1) You’re shocked. 2) You’re disheartened. And 3) you “decide to break the engagement quietly, so as not to disgrace her publicly” (Mt 1:19 NLT).
Actually, if you’re like Joseph, you do one more thing – you listen to heaven speak before you act!
Yes, heaven kind of forced Joseph to listen. But the Christmas story should remind us that it’s always wise to listen to heaven before we act.
In Christ’s Love,
a guy who often acts before he thinks,
… but needs to learn to pray before he acts
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