We all wait.
We wait in lines. We wait for mail. We wait for news. It can all feel very ordinary, mundane.
But how we wait is important. We can choose to wait - not in boredom, anxiety, or dread - but in hopeful anticipation. Every winter the season of advent beckons us and gently reminds us to look beyond our immediate circumstances to something more. To consider the future with joyful expectation. To embrace life in the “not yet” with hope, joy, peace, and faith. There is great beauty, not just in the Promise fulfilled, but in the waiting. 

Romans 15:13

Waiting in Hope

Matthew starts his story of Jesus at the very beginning.
Matthew 1:1-11

Christmas is a new beginning. It started as a dead end. The redemptive story of God was at a dead end.

Joseph was a God-following man. He was at a dead end at Christmas, too.

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 Holy Spirit. Joseph, to whom she was engaged, was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly.

Matthew 1:18-19 

When he hit his dead end, he saw no options left, and he decided to give up as quietly as possible.

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 Holy Spirit. And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus,[i] for he will save his people from their sins.”

Matthew 1:20-21

When I am at the end of my resources, God is not. What seems the reasonable thing to do may not be God.

All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet:

“Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’”

Matthew 1:22-23

Joseph gave God the benefit of the doubt.

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.

Matthew 1:24

Choose the answer first and collect your evidence second.
What looks like disappointment may be your destiny.

 Your doubt is the perfect place for a new beginning.
Don’t let your doubt be a dead-end.