Some weeks ago, a local pastor talked about the Bible Hall of Fame in Hebrews 11; the deans list of the most obedient. I re-read that this week and started thinking about what was in between the lines. Everyone in the Bible is human right? Well, except for God, and Jesus at one point – and Satan – and the angels; well never mind. Most of the people in the Bible are humans and I kinda think that maybe they were a little (or maybe a lot) like me. (Poor humanity!!) Anyway, like when God told Moses that he would go to Pharaoh, the first thing Moses did was make excuses. “I’m old; I’m tired; I’m not a good speaker”…yadda yadda yadda. Hmm, kinda sounds familiar. Abraham was told to sacrifice (kill) his own son – and he almost did. I would have never made it that far. My first response to that instruction would probably sound like this: “You can send me straight to hell right now because it ain’t gonna happen.” I kinda have to wonder if maybe Abraham didn’t think that too; especially after everything he went through to have Isaac in the first place.

But that’s not really what I want to talk about.

One of the most unsung obedient servants in the Bible was Joseph. Here is a man who is engaged to be married and his fiancé comes up pregnant. Wedding vows were taken at the beginning of a betrothal period and there was a year to wait before the union could be consummated so this was a flat out act of adultery. How dare she?! How would I react to that? You see, Mary had not yet told Joseph that she was pregnant by the Holy Spirit. I’m quite sure that she was tossing around ideas trying to figure out the best way to say it. “Joseph, I have something to tell you.  I’m pregnant; but I haven’t been with anyone though. Um…you see…like…uhm…it was God’s Holy Spirit that came upon me; you know how it is with God.” So as Joseph is standing there looking at Mary like a deer in the headlights, he formulates this response to her amazing little tale: “YEAH RIGHT AND I WAS BORN YESTERDAY!!” Since the punishment for adultery was divorce and death by stoning, I’m quite sure that little fairy tale would have put me right over the edge. Joseph was a JUST man though. You can read this as loving, compassionate and forgiving or just possibly, he simply didn’t want to be confrontational. While he was hurt, while he felt betrayed and while he knew what needed to happen under the law, he was going to let her out easy with a quiet divorce and send her on her way. “Take whatever you want, just get out of my life.” Funny, Joseph and I have a lot in common; but that’s another story.

That’s not really what I wanted to talk about either.

The part of Joseph’s story that I identify most with is that even through all of that, he did as the Lord instructed him. He took Mary, a woman who was pregnant by another into his home as his wife. He did that which was socially unacceptable and shameful. (Wow! I like him more and more every day) In doing so, Joseph also took into his home what Mary brought with her; an unborn son, Jesus Christ, who was not his but whom he would raise as his own. Joseph adopted a child; he accepted Jesus as his own son.

Joseph reminds me a lot of someone I know who did the exact same thing. In 1961, a young man in his mid 20’s had just transferred from the U.S. Marines to the U.S. Air Force. His current duty assignment was an air base located in central California. One evening, he and his buddies were cruising the main drag in the nearby town…because that’s what you did on the weekends.  This particular evening, this young man spotted a young woman standing on the sidewalk with her friends. As young people often do, “compliments” were traded between the car and the sidewalk. This went on for sometime until the young man decided it was time to meet the young woman. Later in their relationship, he found that she was already pregnant. Instead of turning tail and running or just simply casting the young woman away, he stayed around and was there when her daughter was born in 1961. About a year and a half later, they were married and the young man adopted his new wife’s daughter, accepted her as his daughter and raised her as his own.

Now it has become our turn. You all have lived our struggles with us. You have been there during the up times and you have been there during the down times. Remember about a year ago when we lost an adoption at the very last? I could have lost my faith really easily but instead, it was made stronger. I was so mad at God. He and I had a shouting match that night. Well it would actually be more accurate to say that I had a shouting match with God and he just listened because at the very end when I had completely expended myself and was exhausted, I heard his voice say, “It’s not over yet” and I was like, “What, the argument?” Less than a month later, we were introduced to a young woman who was pregnant with Morgan. We have taken Morgan into our home and are raising him as our own. In reality, he IS ours. There has never been a doubt about that. All you have to do is to look at the three of us together. I am so in love with that little boy. He is the joy of my life. I don’t even remember what life was like before I had him.

In the story of Jesus’ birth in Matthew chapter 1, there was one particular sentence out of one verse which just grabbed me and held me: “What is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit”. I believe that to be the case with Morgan. There is no doubt in my mind that the Lord not only made him just for us, but also made everything happen to bring us together. It reminds me of something that a friend of mine told me about a year and a half ago; she said that God had a special baby who was waiting just for us.

So we adopted Morgan
The same as my dad adopted my sister
The same as Joseph adopted Jesus
The same as God is willing to adopt us all

A Rebel To The Bitter End
 

I was tagged by my friend Glenn to participate in a meme to name my six word memoir.   I have done this one before here and got a couple of really good responses so those folks are going to get tagged for sure. 

Here are the rules.

1.  Write your own memoir using six words.
2.  Post it on your blog.
3.  Link to the person that tagged you.
4.  Tag five more blogs.

Here’s my tags:
Adam
Stacie
Sean
Patti
Sonja