Merry Christmas!

What better day to blog about a baby than the day we celebrate the most important and expected baby in history? Merry Christmas to everyone reading! What a great day to stop and thank God for His gift to us. Susie is doing great so far and is just tired; not really suffering any sickness yet. I got to talk with one of my best buds from high school yesterday, and he just found out that his wife is pregnant for the first time as well. What makes it even cooler is that we have the same due date of August 3rd! It will be great to do this together and to be experiencing a lot of the same things for the first time almost to the exact date. Congratulations Matty and Moya!

Susie and I lead a small Bible Study of high school students and this past week we have been reading through the first couple chapters of Luke together. Though the passage is familiar, I am reading it with a new perspective this time, and I can’t help but wonder about how Joseph reacted.

Two Sundays ago after church Susie waited until I got home and pretty much ambushed me with the positive test (at least an ambush is what it felt like). I was speechless and tearful and all I could do was the slobbery laugh/cry combo because I was so excited. I have never had that feeling before in my life – it was incredible. I didn’t think that I could fall any more in love with Susie, but this has moved my love and adoration for her to a completely different level. I wonder what Joseph said…

The circumstances were extremely different for him. He and Mary weren’t married yet, so I can’t even imagine the feelings and thoughts going through his mind. It even says in Matthew that he was planning on just ending the relationship over her pregnancy. He had to be convinced by an angel to stick around. I mean, he knew there was no way the baby could be his, but how do you convince other people about that? And until the angel came to visit him I can imagine he had to be wondering about the Mary’s fidelity. And even after the angel visited him he still had the issue of convincing everyone else of his and Mary’s purity. I wonder what it was like facing Mary’s dad and/or brothers. It had to take an extremely good heart to do what he did. Joseph is not covered extensively in Scripture, but Matthew does say that Joseph was a righteous man. I just wonder what was going through his head – it had to be swimming. I don’t know if I would have reacted in as honorable a manner as him.

But God’s plan is perfect, and He always chooses the perfect person to take part in each particular facet of his plan, and Joseph was the right man for that job. I love that because I know that whatever comes out of Susie, boy or girl, short or tall, healthy or sick, whatever, He has picked me to be the father of this child. If I dwell on that thought too long I have both a feeling of confident joy and a feeling of humility, not quite sure if I’m up to the huge responsibility of this impending life-long task that’s bigger than anything I’ve ever undertaken. But God is good, and He has never let me down or failed to provide the strength needed to face the challenges of each chapter of my life. So I can’t wait.

Merry Christmas to everyone reading this, and thanks for reading. I appreciate your thoughts and prayers for the baby, Susie, and myself. Have a great Christmas day wherever you are and take care to remember why we celebrate.