Anticipation-Day 11

The Divine had a dream for Yosef bigger than anything he could conceive.  There was no promise that walking it out day by day would bring a whole lot of revelation or clarity.  But wondrous things happened at critical junctures, to give him the knowledge and the affirmation that he was “living the dream”.  Did he always feel it or know it?  Did he always see the big picture?  Was that required? Yosef’s response was to simply listen and follow. 

In the eternal realm, we angels know that choices matter.  One life matters. Saying yes has eternal implications.

Every once in a while, at one of these critical junctures, Yosef found himself dumbstruck with wonder.  Like the time he had to travel to Bethlehem with his pregnant wife to fulfill a legal obligation, which apparently had no exceptions for women in the late stages of pregnancy.  He was worried and frustrated, trying to find shelter for his laboring wife in a town bursting at the seams with inconvenienced and weary travelers; most of whom were there by forced decree. 

In perhaps one of the lowest moments of his life, when as a husband he couldn’t provide what was needed, the baby is born in a shelter for animals.  I know he wondered how is this part of “living the dream”?

However, shortly thereafter, shepherds appeared, already informed of the birth, to reinforce the fact that Yosef was still moving in the center of something larger than life.  He needed the miracle of that visitation, and so did Miriam.  And that is the absolute graciousness of the Divine.  He comes swooping in unexpectedly and unbidden with a taste of the eternal and the unbearable transforms with wonder! The veil between realities is rent, and glory superimposes itself on mundane perspective, leaving the Sons of Adam to marvel at the miracle of His presence with His affirmation to continue on in awe. 

Four times, at life defining junctures, one of us appeared to give Joseph direction; four times in a dream.  In essence we were encouraging him, “Just live the dream, Yosef. Be willing to go beyond your own understanding!”

The second time an angel appeared was when King Herod wanted to find and kill the baby, which by now was Yosef’s beloved son. What insecure, power hungry madman orders soldiers, to hunt down and slaughter children?  These were trained warriors and fighting men!  What happens inside men who have no choice but to comply with orders or be executed themselves?  How did Yosef deal with the psychological horror of knowing the king had issued an edict for his child’s death while other children, dear to other fathers, were dying in his place?

But the angelic courier instructed Yosef on the next course of the journey.  Go to Egypt until.  Until can be a long road, but if you have an “until” word, you have the assurance that further instruction will come at the next critical juncture “Until” speaks of the more that is coming; you just don’t know when.  “Until” means this phase will end sometime, and something new will open up, so once again, Josef carried on in the direction indicated, using the provision and wisdom gleaned in the last place as he processed life each and every day.  He settled patiently in the now, keeping hope alive and ordered life accordingly. It wasn’t just a waiting phase, though.  It was a growing phase.  Everything was growing.

Yosef was growing. His skills were growing. His business was growing. His family was growing. His relationships were growing. His character was growing.  And he was going to be able to take all that learning and development with him into the next phase of life when the season of “until” was fulfilled.

Sure enough, when Herod died, another angel of the Lord appeared again. I had the privilege that time of directing Yosef to go back to the land of his heritage and inheritance. Yosef’s strategic geographical placement was reinstated for the day that was dawning. Another dream confirmed his suspicions that it was still dangerous to go to Judea, so he settled in Nazareth, fulfilling the scripture that his son would be called a Nazarene. This was an ordinary man, living the dream while protecting the seed of a new day.  Yosef’s son would enable people prosper and fulfill the true end and scope of life, which is God. 

I was that an angel who kept Joseph from failing and missing the true end and scope of his own life, four times.  Be encouraged that when you hear and follow, you are living the dream and you really don’t have to worry that you will miss it.  God’s dream is so important to Him that He breaks into lives along the way to confirm it with wonder.  He wants to assure the Sons of Adam time and time again, that what they are engaged in is larger than anything they ever thought possible. He does that so they will not evaluate themselves and their gifting from a myopic point of view.