But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit"
Matthew 1:20
Reflection by Brenda Doss
I love words, and playing with different meanings. Bad pun jokes are some of my favorites. I also enjoy science and explanations and knowing how things work. I struggle a lot with the idea of incarnation. When I try to think about it, other words and phrases like manifestation, version 1.0 and re-incarnation usually pop into my head, words that are almost but not quite the same. Words that can mean more than one, or slightly different that the original, or simply an indication of presence. The incarnation of Jesus was the first and only time (so far) that the divine was made man, a fleshy human being, and born of a virgin. How did he get there?
It might have been in middle school when I was shown a short film about the hypercube: what you get when you have a square in four dimensions. In a dark classroom, rife with teenage angst and hormones, I tried to wrap my head around the idea of a 4-dimensional object. I may have also been staring at the back of some cute boy's head. As the voice over droned on and on, and the image rotated or turned inside out or spun around, I'm still not sure, I fought sleep (dark room, teenager). Then, clarity. For one brief moment the image before me became clear and I could understand. And then the feeling faded and I wondered if I would pass the class because I couldn't get it. Since then, I've come across many internet explanations and brief mentions of the hypercube on science programs, but I still don't get it. What I do know is that other people understand, and know the science and explanations behind it deeply enough to form more complex theories about space and time.
Joseph struggles with the information that his wife is pregnant, with their marriage as yet unconsummated. He cannot grasp how this might have happened to him, and seeks a way out of this potentially embarrassing union. But an angel appears to him, and, perhaps, for one brief moment in a dream, he is made to understand the meaning of her condition. For Joseph, the knowledge that God knew what was going on was enough.
Think Outside the Manger is a daily Advent devotional written and produced by members of St. Anne's Episcopal Church in Tifton, GA. Visit www.stannestifton.com to learn more.
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