Light {Advent- Week 2}

"Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows; when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. But when he had considered this, behold, and angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, 'Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Sprir. She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.' Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: ' Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,' which translated means, 'God with us.' And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus." ~Matthew 1:18-25

"Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. I have sworn and I will confirm it, that I will keep Your righteous ordinances." ~Psalm 119:105-106

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men." ~John 1:1-4

Jesus is the Word. He fulfills prophecies and promises and brings light to a dark world. He illuminates our path for us and His life serves as the ultimate example for us to follow.

During this week of Advent I have been reflecting on walking in the Light. I have been thinking on how God's word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Often times that lamp only illuminates my next step, not the entire path, and sometimes I am tentative to take that step without being able to see the rest of the path. But I have to remember that walking in the Light is a whole lot better than fumbling around in the darkness.

Joseph's acceptance of Mary after the visit from the angel in his dream as described above in Matthew 1:18-25 is a perfect example of walking in the Light. God communicated with Joseph through an angel in his dream that he wanted him to go ahead and marry a pregnant Mary and raise Jesus. He didn't lay out every detail in his plan for the future, but he clearly illuminated Joseph's next step. When Joseph awoke from his dream he obediently choose to take one more step into the Light.

If I had been Joseph I can all too easily see myself waking up from that dream and immediately questioning. Was that really God? This doesn't really make sense, so it probably wasn't God... I think I will wait for more confirmation before following those crazy directions! I can be a little too, shall we say... self reliant {?} which results in more stumbling around in the darkness than is necessary. My goal this Advent is to boldly step into the Light and follow the path He illuminates for my life even when it isn't comfortable or doesn't make immediate sense to me.