Luke 2:21-38; Matthew 1:18-25
What must it have been like to raise up Jesus? It must have been an unusual parenting task that was full of surprises. In both of our scripture passages, we see what would seem to be interruptions to the "normal" family life of the typical family.
You take your new son to church for dedication and a man you have never seen asks to see your child. He goes on to say that he has been waiting all his life for your son to be born because of the greatness he is going to bring and then he proclaims that he can die in peace.
He is immediately followed by a woman who hasn't left the church house since her husband died but remained their continuously fasting and praying. Upon seeing your son, she begins to rejoice going around telling others about your son.
If all that wasn't enough, some time later, three distinguished dignitaries from a foreign country show up at your dootstep proclaiming that they were led to you after seeing a star over a year ago. In their hands were royal gifts of gold frankincense and myrrh.
Yes being the parents of the Savior must have proved to have its strange interruptions. However, notice that these interruptions of the routine proved to carry with them blessings in disguise.
Now we may not be parents of the Savior. Some of us may be single and not even have children, but we do have something in common--We too are bearers of Jesus. We bear the Spirit of the living Savior of the world inside of us. As a result, we to receive interruptions to normal life because of Him. So how do we react? Are we bothered or do we look for the disguised blessings?
God allows interruptions to our normal life so that we can share Jesus with others much like Mary and Joseph shared Jesus with Simeon, Anna, and the Magi.
As we do, we will find that if were are willing to submit to the Holy Spirit's placing of our lives with whomever we meet, we will find that God will have a disguised blessing for us as well. Luke 2:33 says, "The child's father and mother marvelled at what was said about Him."
