by jphilo | Dec 3, 2012 | Church Newsletter Columns
And Joseph arose from his sleep, and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took her as his wife.
Matthew 1:24
And Mary said, “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord;
be it done to me according to your word.”
Luke 1:38
Parenthood is a risky business. Author Elizabeth Stone nailed it when she said, “Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.”
The approaching Christmas season makes me wonder, did Joseph understand the vulnerability of parenthood when the unnamed angel appeared to him in a dream? Did Mary understand when Gabriel informed her of the upcoming virgin birth of Jesus? Most likely they did not. What first time parents comprehend the profound and lasting love they will feel for their child?
If Joseph and Mary had completely understood the weight of parenthood, would they have obeyed God so willingly? Would they have accepted the prophecies about Jesus and agreed to parent God’s son? Would they have risked living forever with their hearts walking around outside their bodies?
A search of God’s Word for answers reveals the truth: My questions about parenthood were the wrong ones. The question to ask is not whether Joseph and Mary understood the repercussions of parenthood. The better question to ask is whether they understood the nature of God and trusted him to act according to his nature.
Scripture records how well they understood who God was. The verses preceding Joseph’s decision to obey the angel’s command show the first time dad believed God could conceive a baby through the power of the Holy Spirit, thus fulfilling the century-old prophecy in Isaiah.
Mary’s words to her cousin Elizabeth in Like 1:46-55 clearly shows the future mother’s grasp of God’s character. Not only does she recognize God’s ability to work miraculously in her life, she also recognizes his hand as he works through the lives of people and the history of nations to fulfill his promise to Abraham’s offspring.
Joseph and Mary didn’t need to understand the profound changes parenthood would bring to their lives. Rather, they needed to know God was who he declared himself to be. They needed to know who he was so they could trust him with their son’s life, even before he was born. So they could trust him with their vulnerable parent hearts, which once they laid eyes on their baby in a dark and dingy manger, walked forever outside their bodies.
Likewise, we need to know God as Joseph and Mary did because, not just parenthood, but all of life is risky business. It’s too risky to face without sure knowledge of a God who loved the world so much he sent his only begotten Son. A baby born in in a manger. Immanuel. God with us. Only then, in the face of uncertainty and risk, can we echo Mary’s words:
My soul exalts the Lord,
And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior…
For the Mighty One has done great things for me;
And holy is his name.
by jphilo | Sep 20, 2012 | Three Thoughts for Thursday
- Waiting for the grandbaby to arrive lacks the physical discomfort of the last months of pregnancy with our kids, but the waiting is just as hard. Any time now, Baby Philo, any time.
- Thanks to the networks’ policy of randomly scheduling series premiers whenever the spirit moves them, I missed the first episode of Parenthood and am waiting impatiently until September 27 for an update on The Big Bang Theory gang. Sometimes, I wish the networks still premiered all their new shows in the same week, like in the olden days…but with the option of online viewing to miss the political ads, of course.
- A tinge of soup weather’s been in the air the last few days. My three favorite homemade varieties are potato, turkey tortilla, and ham and bean. Yours?
by jphilo | Jan 5, 2012 | Three Thoughts for Thursday
After an Iowa New Year’s weekend full of family, fun, and food followed by the 2012 caucuses, it’s hard to choose just three thoughts for this Thursday. But, here’s my best shot:
- I received Parenthood, Seasons 1 & 2 for Christmas so our fam watched the pilot and first episode Sunday night. The story line, music, and actors hooked both kids and their spouses. Which makes me feel like one trendsetting, hip and cool jive momma!
- Hiram and I once again watched the Lord of the Rings Trilogy over Christmas weekend. Since then, the similarity between the hairstyles body types of college and pro football players and the orcs has disturbed me. Anyone else bothered by that?
- The Iowa caucuses are over. We won’t miss the constant string of robo-calls and survey phone calls. But before hanging up on the caucuses for another four years, take a look at Caucus Time…with a Muppet Flair by my friend and former reporter, Melissa Tagg. Which muppet would you vote for?
by jphilo | Nov 21, 2011 | Current Events
Shhh…don’t tell the iWeb people at Apple about the WordPress graphic on this blog page. Let’s keep the upcoming switch from iWeb to WordPress here at Down the Gravel Road between ourselves. The switch should make this site much faster for readers, which is a very good thing.
And the new bells and whistles it’ll offer are nice, too.
My favorite techno-buddy, Ray, has all the incomprehensible-to-my-small-brain details lined up and ready to go. He’s waiting for me to get done transferring blog posts from this blog to the new one under construction. We thought we’d figured out how to do it in one fell swoop.
But no.
So I’m transferring four years worth of posts one by one. The bugs have been worked out (through painful experience), and each transfer goes fairly quickly. But there are a lot of posts, so the whole process is taking a lot of time.
A lot of time.
But, I’m using the hours and hours and hours required for this mind-numbing process to watch DVDs of TV shows on my always-wanted-to-watch-but-can’t-justify-allocating-time-to-them category.
Shows like West Wing.
And Parenthood.
And a BBC series called Monarch of the Glen.
And – hold your breath –
Glee.
Yes, Glee. The show I swore off as a protest against their Madonna-as-role-model-for-young-women episode in the first season. To be honest, the rest of the series was better than I expected. Even though I still have issues with many of the values it promotes.
But wait.
This post is about the blog transfer, not about the TV shows that have made the transfer tolerable. So here’s the scoop: The last of the posts should be moved to the WordPress site by tonight. After that, all that remains are choosing the SEO phrases so search engines will find the blog, and building a few other pages. Once everything is ready to go, the switch will be announced on this blog and Ray will make the switch. Which we’re praying will go off without a hitch.
Wishful thinking, perhaps.
So to be on the safe side, I’m checking the latest Parenthood, Monarch of the Glen, West Wing, and Glee DVDS from the library. Because my web tech issues will pale compared to those of the Bravermans, the laird of the estate, President Martin Sheen, and the glee club nerds.
I call it WordPress de-stress.
Ahhh.
