***
How often does life seem unfair?
We don’t get into the high school or college of our choice; we get a pink slip at work; a poor diagnosis; a relationship ends; a brutal virus ravages our world.
In these moments, the challenge is to believe God is still working in our lives.
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Consider the life of Saint Joseph. Scripture tells us he was a humble man; an honest man; the type of person you want to root for. Yet his world seems shattered by unfairness.
Mary, his bride-to-bed, is pregnant and the child isn’t his. Even after the angel appears to Joseph in a dream and explains what’s happened, his circumstances remain terribly unfair.
God invites Joseph to love a woman whose story he doesn’t fully understand; to protect a baby that he didn’t father; and to accept this child as the heir to his name.
That’s a tough pill to swallow.
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But maybe there’s a message in that for us.
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Joseph’s experience of faith reminds us that God is always at work in our lives, even when our circumstances seem unfair. Sometimes we need to be patient with the Lord – and trust.
When Joseph first heard Mary was pregnant, for example, he thought his life was over. But slowly he began to see that this was the first step towards the salvation of the world.
What seemed like the end was merely a bend in the road.
***
When have my own life circumstances felt unfair?
Or when has the Lord invited me to trust, like Joseph and Mary?
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In the words Mary, who also found herself at a bend in the road:
“May it be done unto me according to your word.”
Placing our trust in Jesus is important.
Always!