Friday 21 Dec 2012

Friday Reading: Matthew 1:18-19

Key Verse: Matthew 1:19
19  Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a publick example, was minded to put her away privily.

Devotion:
I love trying to put faces to people in the bible. Nowadays we don’t get much choice as we are bombarded with videos, photos, paintings, drawings and all manner of graphics to try and impress on us what others thought bible characters looked like. The movies makers come up with some pretty strange choices as to what they think others looked like with choices being made based on various characteristics; but how accurate do you think they are?

I had always imagined Mary to be a slight lady because that is what has been depicted in paintings and drawings; but when you start to think about her, how many children she had, what environment she was brought up in and then look at the local people from this day and age – just maybe we come up with a very different picture. And that just typifies how we look at things – it is all about appearance and not about what is on the inside!

God looks on the inside of people and judges us by how we actually are and not what we look like. God continues to uphold what is actually right and not what looks right at the time! We don’t get that many physical descriptions of what people looked like in the bible because that is not what is important; what is important is what God sees of us and what we are actually like. Joseph may have been a rugged character and we often think of him as such because of his background and job; and we think of Mary as being so innocent and hence a small or slight lady.

But what we should be doing is looking at what they we like on the inside to see why God chose them. Joseph was a man who wanted to uphold the law, why else would he be thinking of putting Mary away, or divorcing her. But he was not going to make a big scene of it but rather just wanted this all to fade away without anyone noticing. Little did he know that God had other plans! But when God explained what was going on, Joseph had no problems with standing proud and making sure that God’s will was done. We may want to guess what he looked like, but to God he was a man of integrity. What do you think you look like to God?

Points to Ponder:
What do others make of you?

Do you project your real worth?