Lent day 9

Matthew 2:13-15New International Version (NIV)

The Escape to Egypt

13 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream.“Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15 where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

The news is just full of people going to Syria to join Isis, and people fleeing Isis and their brutal regime of terror.  And then there's Boko Haram and their murderous campaign not to mention all the nutters out there with guns causing chaos on the streets of the West.   You cant go a day without hearing about something horrible.  We must surely be heading towards the end times ( Ive never thought we have actually been in them despite what lots of people have said for the past few hundred years)  It is a grim time to be alive.  And a dangerous time to be a Christian,

One of the things I love about Jesus is that He has always been right there in the thick of it with us.  When we get to heaven and we stand before Him with our many questions we will not be able to level the accusation that He cannot possibly understand.  He knows what it is like to be displaced, a refugee, homeless,  He knows what its like to grow up as an immigrant, not fitting in, being different.  He too has been part of an ethnic minority.  He has been poor. Persecuted.  He has lived in a family who have had to flee in the night in terror with only what they could carry.  He knows.   He has been there.

The book I am following talks about todays readings as a journey of fear.   It must have been I suppose.  Poor Joseph.  He has already had to do the several days journey to Bethlehem with a heavily pregnant wife.  The birth in the cattle trough.  The strange visitors in the night.  Then later the wise men with their odd gifts.  Now he has to up sticks again and take his young family to Egypt - the very place of his ancestor's captivity.  That must have been a tricky journey.  If you have ever been any distance with a toddler in tow you will know just how tricky !  Not every path God leads us on is safe.  Not every path is full of delights.  Some of them are scary and very very tough.  If Jesus had to flee in the night maybe. just maybe, sometimes we might have to do that too. 

But just as the infant Jesus had His father with Him to keep Him safe and look after Him - well, so do we.  If you feel exiled at the moment, that you are not living in the place you are meant to be, if you feel you have been persecuted and forced to retreat, dont despair.  God is with you.  He has a plan.  He will bring you back when the coast is clear.  He is protecting you - even if it might not feel like that.    And of course we are all exiled because our home is heaven and we arent there yet.  Strangers in this world.  Just passing through.