Discovery

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows:

After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph,

before they came together,

she was found with child of the Holy Spirit.

Matthew 1:18, NKJV

The last few months had been crazy, full of action and excitement and not a little angst. The girl Mary, about fourteen years old, had been betrothed in marriage to the young carpenter Joseph--a kinsman on her father's side. Sometime after, she received word through an angelic messenger that she was going to conceive the Son of God in her womb by the overshadowing power of the Holy Spirit, and was also told that her mother's cousin Elizabeth had conceived a son in her old age. Upon hearing that news, Mary went to the Judean Hill Country and stayed with Elizabeth for three months, possibly until Elizabeth gave birth to John.

After the birth of John, all of Zacharias and Elizabeth's relatives came to celebrate the birth. It was around the time of Passover and Unleavened Bread, and the timing could not have been more convenient. Everyone traveling to or from Jerusalem could easily stop for the dedication, including Mary's parents and family--her Judean father Joachim, her Levite mother Anna, and perhaps her sisters Mary and Salome. In my technicolor imagination, I like to envision the events surrounding John's birth as the setting in which Mary was reunited with her family. Can you imagine it with me--a small slip of a girl embracing her mother with an unmistakable bump beneath her robes?

How did she break the news to her parents? And what did she tell them? Perhaps she had informed her family of the angelic visitation before she departed for Elizabeth's house. Or maybe this was a surprise for them. Either way, when she finally sat down with them and told them her story, it is possible and even probable that they did not believe her. God didn't get girls pregnant; boys did. And then the question might have been, "Which boy?" Had Joseph, her betrothed, been sneaking into the house at night? Had Mary been sneaking out? Did Mary have another boyfriend with whom she had been misbehaving? Had there been someone during her time with Elizabeth? Later in the gospels, some Jewish leaders would say, "Aren't we right in calling you a Samaritan?" Thirty years later, the community still harbored suspicions that Mary had been naughty on that trip south from Galilee.

What her family knew, and when they knew it, is not told to us in Scripture. The one thing it does tell us about that time in Mary's life is that her betrothed didn't know. At least not until she returned from Elizabeth's and was starting to show. And at that time, she was found to be with child. She was discovered! And Joseph knew--of a certainty, no matter what anyone else speculated or suspected, Joseph knew that the child growing within Mary's womb was not his, for he had not touched her. The gospels show Joseph to be a righteous and just man, and he knew that there had been no misbehaving on his part. If Mary was pregnant, she must have been with another man, because Joseph knew he had not been to visit her, nor she him.

How do you suppose that conversation went? Once Mary had returned home, did her parents insist that she inform Joseph at once of her condition, or did word filter into the carpentry shop some day through mouths dripping with salacious gossip? I imagine Joseph as a sensitive young man, a man of deep feelings that were cautiously and strictly controlled, but not easily hidden from sight. I imagine him standing in the doorway and Mary breaking the news to him, gently, softly, forthrightly. "Joseph, an angel came to visit me."

He didn't believe her.

"Joseph, I know it's hard to accept, but this angel told me that I was going to have a son, and that he would be the Son of God."

I'm sure Joseph was thinking, "Well I know he's not my son, but I can't believe you're really trying to lay this off on God. God doesn't do things that way!"

"Joseph, I know God has never done anything like this before, but it's what He has done now." There were probably tears and protestations of innocence, declarations of love and honor and faithfulness. But no matter how sincere Mary was, in Joseph's heart there was only doubt. The Bible tells us so.

And how like that we are sometimes, when God does something contrary to our human logic, reasoning and understanding. Sometimes it's enough to make one question their faith. Sometimes some have turned away from God because they didn't understand. But we need to be open to the wondrous works of God, because sometimes He has finds ways of surprising even us!