Advent|Dec.5th ~ Celebrating our Rescuer's Coming!

Sarah & I would like to share with you one of our "first" traditions (if we can call it a tradition yet). We decided to get an Advent calendar for our Christmas season! 1. Because I don't remember the last time I ever went through an Advent calendar 2. Because it's cool and we live in Seattle 3. Because it's biblical (thought I should add this one). We are celebrating Advent, because the word means "coming," and reminds Sarah & I of the best "coming" there ever was! The arrival of our Rescuer, Jesus Christ!

Day 5, December 5th!

What stuck out for Sarah and I in our reading of Matthew 2:13-23 was the use of dreams as a means of God in guiding this new couple, unfolding their story in His way and His time.

"...behold an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said..."

"behold an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt..."

"and being warned in a dream he (Joseph) withdrew to the district of Galilee." (vv.13, 19, 22) 

Dreams is one of the more fascinating things about our human bodies that I will never understand. Why do we dream? Why did God create within us such an ability to do so? Was it for such purposes as we see above? Was it for reasons we will never know while we live here on earth?

What's even more fascinating is how real a dream can feel! Whether a good dream, or a nightmare, it can affect how well we sleep at night, whether we can sleep at all and so much more. Sometimes certain dreams affect someone so much that they change the way they are living because of it. Here in Matthew we find an example of this. An angel comes to Joseph and speaks to him while he's dreaming, and Joseph acts upon it!

One way that God uses dreams is for such occasions as above: to guide the direction of His children. When God wanted this couple to move or change the way they were living, He decided to use an angel and a dream. There was another Joseph, a long time ago, who also was influenced by his dreams. Remember Joseph and his multi-colored coat...

"Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more. He said to them, 'Hear this dream that I have dreamed: Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf. His brothers said to him, 'Are you indeed to reign over us?' So they hated him even more for his dreams and his words." (Gen 37: 5-8)

God used dreams and many other things that we would consider 'out of the norm' to unfold history as He lovingly planned it. He used a dream and an angel to get Joseph's attention and move him and his pregnant wife to safety. As this story shows us, God sometimes uses dreams and uncommon methods to lovingly guide and move His children as they live. He is a good God, and is bigger and better, wiser and more gracious than we could know! He does whatever He pleases; even if it means using a dream to gain one's attention :-)