I’m grateful to everyone for the love I received based on the last blogpost. Thanks so much for the encouragement, prayers, care and concern. I really appreciate you. Till the end of the year, I’ll be making it up to you for my absence with long and interesting reads (my way of apology 😜).
It’s only two days to Christmas and there’s so much excitement in the air💃💃 and today, I’ll be sharing the story of Jesus from another person’s perspective, without our focus being on Jesus. Please come with me 🚶♀️🚶♀️😂:
‘’All right then, the Lord himself will himself will give you a sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Emmanuel (which means ‘’God with us’’) Isaiah 7:14(NLT). Long before Christ was born, there was already a prophecy about Him being born of a virgin. Everytime, I think about this, I’m like even Isaiah that gave the prophecy must have thought at some point of the impossibility of a virgin bearing a child 🙄. Like how humanly possible is it?
‘’This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holyspirit’’ Matthew 1:18 NLT.
Picture this as an African 😂. So, you and your Fiance are ready to get married and you’ve done your introduction in April, hoping to be married in December, then all of a sudden, in September, you’re pregnant 🤰, even though you and your Fiance never slept with one another 😲. Try playing the scene of what the guy must have told Mary. Let me play mine: ‘’I don’t know what you’re talking about here. After all, you told me you’re a virgin and we were both waiting till our wedding night. So, tell me exactly how you got pregnant. Oh, the pregnancy fell from the sky abi. Better carry your ‘pregnancy’ to the person who impregnated you because it’s over between us. I can’t afford to father a Bastard’’. Hey 🙆🙆 relationship of 8years is over, just like that 😭😭. I can imagine tears welling up in Mary’s eyes and how much she must be trying to explain everything that the Holyspirit told her to Joseph, how he must have been unwilling to listen or even believe the story 😭 (because if I was the one too, I won’t believe).
‘’Joseph, her fiancé, was a good man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly’’ Matt 1:19 NLT. Joseph was a ‘’good man’’ but still he couldn’t comprehend the idea of a child of the Holyspirit. Which explains that, being good and godly doesn’t mean you’ll always automatically understand what God is doing in your life all the time or even be willing to accept God’s will for your life all the time Joseph knew what disgrace and embarrassment would come on Mary if he publicly dismissed the wedding plans, so he just wanted to let her go privately 😔. I can understand how difficult that thought must have been for him and the emotional rollercoaster that must have come with it. A feeling of anger 😠, betrayal towards Mary and a feeling of frustration on losing his lover to another man 😔. The thought of how he was going to begin his life and how he was going to face the general public to explain why he broke up when they eventually get to know must have plagued him 😥.
‘’As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. ‘Joseph, son of David’ the angel said, ‘Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holyspirit. And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins’’ Matt 1:20–21(NLT). If I was Joseph, I’ll wake up and wait for the angel to come back physically, so I can ask him some questions. Yes, he has told me his part, let me also ask questions so I can understand better and give him my own reasons why this can’t be true, why it’s impossible, why I can’t agree to marry Mary and if I’ll agree to marry her, the conditions under which I’ll marry her 😂😂. But see what Joseph did:
‘’When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife. But he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born. And Joseph named him Jesus’’ Matt 1:24–25 NLT. Just like that 🙆. For some seconds, put yourself in his shoes, would you immediately agree like that?🙄 I’m sure you’ll need about a month or two because ‘’what will people say’’. But Joseph isn’t you. You’re not Joseph 😂😂. I imagined that all these while, Mary must have been in her room everyday; crying, praying, fasting and refusing to go out😭. And here was Joseph, ready to go on this journey with her (what a nice guy 🤭).
Now Mary and Joseph agreed to take on this ‘’embarrassing’’ journey, but they need to tell their parents that they’re pregnant for the Holyspirit 😲😲. I just imagine myself telling my African parents that the Holyspirit impregnated me 🤣🤣. How religious can they possibly be to believe that?🤷 Is it the beatings, shouting or maybe they’d even send you out of the house so ‘you don’t bring your disgrace upon them’. Chai 🤦, Mary must have been thinking: ‘’Holyspirit, why me? Holyspirit, am I even sure it’s you who owns this baby’’ or even saying ‘’Holyspirit, let’s rewind this whole thing. I’m not doing again. Can I just have my normal life back’’ Me that I would’ve been tired 😭😭.
But through all opposition and challenges, Mary and Joseph put up with, they held unto God’s words. They believed in Him and His words towards them. Come to think of it, there was no promise of anything for Mary and Joseph, if they agreed to pull through this promise 🤷. Kai, I imagined there was one, atleast that would’ve served as a morale to push them through the journey.
Then, King Herod came with his own trouble of Census, the journey to Bethlehem on a donkey 😭😭, Mary going into labour, the search for an inn and having to birth the baby in a manger 😭😭. I imagine Mary asking God, if all the suffering, embarrassment and public disgrace she has been through wasn’t enough, and why He still had to make her go through this 😭😭(Me, I’m not a guy, which is why I’m putting myself more in Mary’s shoe). I feel like it was until Mary gave birth to Jesus and the wise men came, the shepherds came, the glory shone around them, that she started to feel the joy that came with birthing the Messiah.
I’m sure someone is not going to see this story from this perspective, but let me remind you that Mary and Joseph were normal, average citizens of their country and not the classy, bougie ones who could easily cover up their issue. I imagined, the town where they lived in, being a small town and how far and fast the news must have spread, the treatments and jest they got from people just because they were ‘’pregnant for the Holyspirit’’ 😔😔.
The next time you think of Christmas, beyond thinking of Jesus as God in human form, think of his parents and all they had to go through to fulfil the prophecy of God coming in flesh to the world.
Learnt something from this perspective of Jesus’birth story? Kindly, share with us in the comment section 👇👇.
Thanks for being a part of Zoe and constantly showing up and checking in ♥️♥️. I really appreciate you 💕💕.
Next week, I’ll be sharing a few things I learnt from this perspective of the story. Anticipate!! But until then, Merry Christmas 🎅⛄🌲🎄🤶. Have fun, but don’t forget Mary and Joseph 😜😜. See you next week 🤗.
