20 Mar Mary’s Calling……and Joseph’s Response
He was Her Dream Maker……
As I wake up this morning on March 19, the Feast Day of Saint Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary, I can’t help but wonder what must have been running through Joseph’s mind when he woke up from his dream – Only to realize it wasn’t a dream. Imagine for one moment, your most outrageous dream, and then accept that it will be your life’s work. Your dream will now become a reality, and all generations to come will learn and grow to understand its message. For Joseph, his dream must have brought forth a slew of emotions. Waking up and realizing the woman to whom he is betrothed to is pregnant by the “Holy Spirit” and would bring forth the Son of God? Joseph, would then raise Him as his own and marry His mother. A woman, he would NEVER know as his wife in the marriage bed.
It is hard to wrap our brains around the “Calling of Joseph”. For it represents a level of sacrifice above and beyond the un-imaginable. He was to deny himself of what we consider a normal life. However, having said all that, I don’t believe that would be his biggest challenge. Raising the “Son of God”, while married to the “Mother of God” I am sure would be his morning thought out of bed and his evening thought as he laid his head to bed every night.
The responsibility given to “Man,” in this act of God, is one of Love and Trust. Joseph, in the eyes of God, would be the “New Adam”. A “do-over” for man, if you will. From the beginning of time, man took the low road, blaming woman for all the havoc in the garden. Yet it was his responsibility to “tend” the garden. We must ask ourselves, how did the serpent get in? Was he not paying attention? Was he golfing? Was he watching football? Was he working too many hours? The reasons or excuses are endless, yet God looked to man again and placed an unbelievable level of Love and Trust in him through Joseph, because he knew he could trust man with His most prized possession…..His Son and His Mother. Both of these gifts were entrusted to Joseph to give “man” an opportunity to see what his true role is as a husband and a father.
Unfortunately, in today’s world, we don’t really see the sacrificial love, that Joseph possessed, in denying himself and doing what is necessary to keep marriages and families together anymore. Some of our Joseph’s, if you will, are still stuck in toiling the land, by the sweat of their brow. They are living under the “curse of man,” and not in the “victory of how God created man in His own image”. Through the Resurrection of Calvary, man wins. However, there are so many men walking around NOT understanding the season of time in which we are living. You see woman said, “Yes,” first through the Virgin Mary when she said, “Be it done unto me according to Thy Word.” Then man said, “Yes,” through Joseph. When Joseph said, “Yes” to God, he also said “yes,” to dying to his own dreams and, “yes” to God’s dream.
I challenge every man who is reading this Gospel today: Are you living your life as a Joseph, or are you living your life as Adam – a fallen man, who’s only dream is his own? Being a true man, in this world today, is understanding true sacrifice. As a married man, does your wife feel cherished? As a father, do your children love their mother and their GOD above all things because you have been an example of this Great Love? Joseph was the man he was because he denied himself and took nothing, so that Mary and Jesus could have everything. What kind of man are you today, on the Feast Day of Saint Joseph? Are you a taker or a giver? Are you giving the woman of your dreams everything she desires? Ask yourself right now, are you her Dream Maker, or are you crushing her desires and dreams?
As a people of God we need to come together and call on the Spirit of Saint Joseph to pour down his wisdom and knowledge upon mankind. We also need for the true, Joseph’s among us to find the courage to lead their families and help other men find their places within their marriages and families. Only then will we be able to begin to truly understand and see, the power of being created in HIS image……
I welcome everyone reading this Gospel today to share this powerful truth with every MAN you know and challenge them, in this season of resurrection, to embrace their faith and watch God be God……it will change this Lent Season forever!
In HIS Service,
Yvonne Florczak Seeman
Love From Above Inc
1 (866) Time 2 Speak