Matthew 1:18-24 

This is how Jesus Christ came to be born. His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph; but before they came to live together she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.  Her husband, Joseph, being a man of honour and wanting to spare her publicity, decided to divorce her informally. He had made up his mind to do this when the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, and said ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because she has conceived what is in her by the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you must name him Jesus, because he is the one who is to save his people from their sins.’ Now all this took place to fulfil the words spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

The virgin will conceive and give birth to a sonand they will call him Emmanuel,a name which means ‘God-is-with-us’. 

When Joseph woke up he did what the angel of the Lord had told him to do: he took his wife to his home.

 Reflection

When Joseph found out that Mary was pregnant he acted in accord with the cultural norms of his society: he decided to divorce her. But he tempered his decision with compassion, deciding to divorce her informally so as not to publicly shame her, even though he would have been deeply hurt. 

On waking from his dream Joseph knew with absolute certainty that the meaning of Emmanuel – God is with us – applied to him and Mary. He may not have fully understood the significance of Mary’s child, and must have been rather bewildered by the phrase “she has conceived what is in her by the Holy Spirit”. But he knew that God was with them, and that was what mattered most.  

Joseph experienced a radical intervention in his life. He had decided on a course of action and changed his mind because of a dream in which an angel spoke to him.  There are shelves of books and dvds in our shops about planning and decision-making, but not many would give credence to Joseph’s decision-making process. 

For those who believe in God, decision-making is about belief and trust. When we are faced with making a decision of significance, naturally we review the reasons why we might choose one option over another.  We might consult other people, either for information or for their opinion. It is quite possible that this process gives us peace in deciding on a particular option.  

Using our God-given gifts of reason and logic is one way of making a decision. But sometimes we can experience an unsettled feeling even when there seems to be a good logical reason for making a particular choice. Or it may be that no matter how much we study the options, we simply cannot find peace in choosing one option over another. This may have been Joseph’s experience in his decision-making process.  

In these circumstances research and reasons need to give way to belief and trust - belief that God is with us, and trust that he will guide us onto the right path.  If reason leads to a particular choice, ask God to intervene if the decision is not the right one, and give him the opportunity to do so. Joseph made his first decision and then went to bed before acting on it – he took the same advice we often offer one another, to “sleep on it”.  

Sometimes when we are considering two options and we cannot settle on one of them, we need to ask God to show us all the options, as there may be more than the two we can see.  We should also be aware that we may be trying to make a decision that doesn’t need to be made. This can happen when we are influenced by change in another person’s life, and we may want the excitement of change too, when in fact God is not leading us to change our situation at all. 

At that moment when Joseph accepted responsibility for Jesus and his mother, he made a decision of consequence for all human beings. Our decisions may not be so momentous, but they matter in our relationships with God and with other people.  It is always worth inviting God into our decision-making before resorting to the shelves in the bookstore.