Standing on my Soap Box

Imagine…

You are a teenage girl and you suddenly find out you are pregnant. You have to go home and tell your family including your fiancé. Imagine you are a teenage boy and your fiancé comes to you and says she is pregnant, and you KNOW you haven’t done anything for her to be in that way.

I remember a time when I was looking at a family genealogy book and saw that there was a mistake. I wanted to make sure that the info I had was correct, so I went to my Grandma and told her that the genealogy book had her wedding date as June, and my Uncle as being born in July, but of the same year (for those of you who are bad with math, that 1 month different), and I wanted to know what year was wrong, was uncle born the year after, or was her wedding the year before. I remember her very matter of fact answer… The first baby after marriage can come at any time; it’s the other babies that take 9 months.

I am sure that if my jaw could have dropped to the floor it would have. My grandma was 8 months pregnant when she and grandpa were married. That was back in 1922. Imagine the shame that must have brought to their families.

Breeze forward 1,922 years before that to Mary and Joseph, if it was shameful in 1922, imagine how shameful it would have been in the year 0 AD.

Joseph had a fiancé who he was betrothed to. He hadn’t done anything with her for her to become pregnant and yet she was. She had been unfaithful!  An angel comes to him and says Mary is pregnant with the Christ child. Do you know what he signed up for, a life of constant reminders?  My question to my grandmother was innocent, which date in a book was wrong, and yet she was reminded of the fact that she made a mistake (no my uncle wasn’t a mistake, he was a surprise), and she had to admit it to one of her grandchildren. Joseph hadn’t sinned, and neither did Mary. They were volunteered for a life of side way looks, and whispers behind their backs. This was no easy life. Thirty three years later, she would have to watch him die, knowing he had done nothing wrong.

So, why am I telling you about this? (Cause you know I always have to ask that question). Put yourself in their shoes. What would you have done? How would you have reacted? How would you have felt? Mary and Joseph both gave and were obedient until it hurt. Do you?