Parents Chosen for Jesus

God has been prepping for thousands of years for the moment of choosing the parents for his most precious son, Jesus.  It couldn’t be anyone.  It had to be a couple whose values reflected his own.  It had to be parents whose morals were centered in God.  It has to be parents who demonstrated humility, a strong work ethic and disciplines that would enable them to raise the Son of God.  To be Jesus’ parents, the requirement had to be one who found favor with God.  Luke 1:28 says, “The angel [Gabriel] went to her [Mary] and said, ‘greetings, you are highly favored!  The Lord be with you.’”

To be highly favored by God meant that Mary was true to living out God’s will and loving him with all her heart, soul, strength, and mind.  Every part of her life was a reflection of her desire to be godly.  She was the perfect mother for Jesus.  She had no issues that would prevent her from fulfilling one of the most important missions anyone has ever been given directly from God. 

Mary wasn’t the beauty queen of Galilee.  She didn’t live in the most expensive subdivision.  She wasn’t the most popular or the most cultured.  She was simple.  Humble.  And, God fearing.  Not fancy, just ordinary. 

God’s choice of Mary and Joseph was a brilliant one.  When one looks throughout Scripture, God uses the most unexpected people to bring about the most spectacular events in the history of mankind. 

Parents are chosen everyday by God to bring a child into the world.  What an incredible responsibility God has to place every child with a parent.  There are some parents who are abusive, uncaring, and unloving.  Some children get parents who are lawbreakers, while others get parents who do not believe in God or want anything to do with any Christian group.  Some may say that isn’t fair!  Some will asked, why would God place them with parents who are abusive, lawbreakers or atheist? 

If we allow our negative circumstances to define us, then we will never move beyond our own self-pity; nor will we ever experience the opportunities of what God’s love will ultimately do for us.  It won’t be easy not to blame, be angry, bitter or sad; however, the entire reason God chose Mary and Joseph to bring Jesus into the world was because He knew the type of character they would have as parents and He needed godly parents to raise Jesus so that ultimately he would save all of us from our sins (Matthew 1:21) and to let each of us know that God will be with us every step of the way, (Matthew 1:23) whether good or bad, nice parents or not, God is never a step away; he is always engaged in our lives and hangs on to every word we say and travels with us throughout our life. 

Jesus’ parents, Mary and Joseph are a vital part of the Christmas story. If we really take a close look at their parenting skills, we will see how they were humble, led with integrity and ensured that their son would receive the best teaching spiritually, physically and academically.  May we all do our best to teach our kids the same values spiritually, physically and academically. 

Remember, Be God Controlled!

Brian