Before I left for the race I remember thinking about how weird it would be to spend a Christmas away from home, away from my family. I remember thinking about how the holidays might make me homesick, and how I would wish I was back home instead of on the race. This past week I celebrated Christmas in Guatemala. And I wasn’t homesick, because the holiday was filled with so much joy. And I wasn’t without family, because everyone on my squad has become my family. Christmas in Guatemala was beautiful, full of singing, delicious foods, pajama parties, christmas movies, fireworks, and sweet notes and gifts from women who I call my sisters. I really enjoyed making new Christmas memories, and I can definitely say that my Guatemalan Christmas was one I will never forget.
My favorite part of the holidays was our squad’s Christmas Eve candlelight service. We all dressed up (to the best of our world race wardrobe abilities) and then ate dinner together. After dinner we moved the tables and gathered chairs around to sing christmas songs, reminding us of the real reason for celebration, the birth of a king. The carols were beautiful, and it felt like I was surrounded by family. Then one of the guys on my squad, Jacob, got up to share a message. I’ve heard the Christmas story so many times throughout my life, yet every year I’m amazed that there is more to keep learning. Instead of reading from Luke, which is where I normally read the Christmas story from, Jacob read to us from Matthew.
Jacob started by saying he wanted to talk about the main characters of the story, Mary and Joseph. Right away this grabbed my attention, because I had never thought of Mary and Joseph as the main characters. I guess I just always thought the main character was Jesus, and that everyone else was kind of in the background. I knew Mary and Joseph were important, but I had never listened to a whole Christmas message just on them. What Jacob talked about really changed the way I view Mary and Joseph’s role in the Christmas story, as well as how I view all of the roles God has given us to bring the kingdom. I started this blog series to relay to you the wisdom that has been poured into me since being in Guatemala. I think its incredible, and inspiring, that people my own age on my own squad possess so much wisdom. I learn from them every day, and this is what I learned through Jacobs sermon:
Matthew 1:20 “But after he had considered this, an angle 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 what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit’.”
Something I’ve heard a lot throughout the past few years is that God doesn’t call the equipped, he equips the called. I had never thought of this applying to Mary and Joseph. I mean, they are bible characters. I know we are supposed to think they are just normal people that God chose to carry out his story, but in the back of my mind I always thought they must be something special. Like they must have been really nice and kind, they must not have sinned a lot, they must have been good examples, right? Why else would God choose them. It’s hard to think of bible characters as average joes like me, but I’m I’m beginning to realize just how normal Mary and Joseph were. They were just people, probably just teenagers like me. They still had fear, and God still had to remind them everything was going to be alright. Simply put, they were not equipped.
There was nothing about Mary and Joseph that made them any better than you or I. God didn’t choose them because they were so well equipped. He called them because they were his children. And all of God’s children have already been called to carry out his story, to bring his kingdom. Everyone who claims God as their Lord and Savior is called to live a missional life. We can’t just reduce calling to special people in specific places. As followers of God, we are all called. And because we are called, God is going to equip us. He will give us the strength we need for every situation he brings us to. He will give us wisdom and discernment. It’s how God works; he equips the called.
It’s important to remember that we know we are equipped and able because we know who we are in Christ. God reminds Joseph of this, saying “Joseph, son of David” before telling him what he has been called to do. God reminds Joseph who he is, a son of David. He’s reminding him where he has come from. David was a man after God’s heart, a man God believes is worth mentioning. When you read the genealogy of Jesus at the beginning of Matthew 1, you see that Joseph’s family can be traced back to David. David wasn’t perfect, yet God used him in amazing ways to bring the kingdom. Joseph needed this reminder. He needed to know where he came from. He needed to know that he was a part of a generation that came from an unequipped man who was called by God. He needed to know that even though he was unequipped, God was going to use him too.
God finds it important to remind us of this, so we should find it important too. When we know who we are, when we know we are God’s, then we can also know that we are able to do anything he calls us to do. Once we know we belong to God, and that our identity is in him and him alone, then we can also know that we are equipped.
Bringing Jesus into the world was a part of bringing God’s kingdom. Mary and Joseph were just ordinary people who were called by God to accomplish this part of kingdom bringing. But they were also people who were equipped by God, because they knew their identity was rooted in him. You and I are ordinary people too, but once we know who we are, we can recognize a few things:
We are called to be kingdom bringers.
And
We are equipped to bring the kingdom.
Because
We are sons and daughters of the most high.
