For Horace Walpole life had taken a wrong turn somewhere along his journey. Life had become drab and dreary, just an existence. I won’t ask for a show of hands though I think some of you could relate to Horace’s situation. It is where you are right now. You made plans in life and somewhere along the journey things took a wrong turn. You didn’t expect to fall victim to the recession, you didn’t expect the doctor to say the “c” word. You thought your kids would grow up perfect. You thought you would outlive your spouse. Life has taken a wrong turn and you need a miracle, and for some, you need it fast, like yesterday.
This month we are talking about how you can have your miracle this Christmas. I should point out miracles don’t usually come wrapped as we thought they would, or in boxes the size we thought they would be. God’s miracles are always wrapped better, come bigger, and are more delightful and surprising then we might have thought them to be. Horace discovered that. There is also someone in the Bible who made the same discovery at Christmas time. His name was Joseph.
Today I have a simple, practical lesson on what to do when it seems life has taken a wrong turn and you need a miracle. It could be a miracle you needed yesterday, it might be one you will be in need of tomorrow, or it just might clear the way for your Christmas miracle today.
I. Life is not always what it seems.
Most of us know the story of Mary and Joseph. Joseph was a bit older than Mary. Their marriage may well have been arranged through family, which was not uncommon in that day. However it came about, they were engaged, actually to the stage where they would have been considered married thought in the Jewish custom having not consummated their marriage which would be done after a formal wedding ceremony. Somewhere between the time of this formality, Mary came to Joseph with some startling news. Matthew 1:18 tell us she was pregnant and Joseph was not the father. Now this is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant by the Holy Spirit.
How do you tell someone life is not what it seems? “Joseph, we need to talk. The most amazing thing has just happened to me. I’m pregnant and an angel told me I was going to give birth to the Messiah.”
It must have been quite a persuasive conversation. Verse 19, Joseph, her fiancé, being a just man, decided to break the engagement quietly, so as not to disgrace her publicly.
If Joseph believed the story, he would have stood by her. Because he had a great love for her he made a decision to privately break off the marriage. He didn’t want to disgrace her, to have her put to death, the penalty for this kind of behavior at that time. Life for Joseph was not what he had planned. A bride, a wedding, children later down the road, someone to enjoy life with, someone to grow old with, someone who would be loyal and faithful. Instead, the person he thought would meet those desires now turns up at his doorstep, pregnant and with a story so wild, well what could he do but be honorable, the type of man he was. It sounded like something from a fairy tale…
Fairy tale that was what Horace Walpole was reading in 1754 sitting in his home in England on a grim winter day. A Persian fairy tale, that was about to change his perspective on life. It was the story of three princes who set out from the island of Ceylon in pursuit of great treasures.
Life is not always what it seems. Much like four garbage collectors found out In Paris in 1974. Their truck was pulled over by the police, they were taken from the truck and instead of being taken to jail they were taken to the presidential palace where they were the guests of the president of France for breakfast and presented at the end with a turkey and bottle of champagne, and wished a Merry Christmas.
II. Life is full of change.
Have you discovered this? Some change is good, some, well, perhaps not so good. Change is inevitable no matter. We change our clothes, daily I hope, we change our hair color gradually unless it is with dyes, we change jobs, addresses, and phone numbers. Some change mates and exchange children on the weekends and vacations. Life is full of change whether we want it or not.
Joseph was looking forward to a wedding not a birthday party. Matthew 1:20 As he considered this, he fell asleep and an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to go ahead with your marriage to Mary.”
It looks like the on again off again marriage between Joseph and Mary is back on again. You save a lot of postage on announcements if you wait before you mail out cancellation notices right away. Here is the key: Wait to hear from God before you make your decisions. I can understand Joseph’s thinking. Mary comes and says, I’m pregnant, and angel said it is from God. Joseph was probably thinking, all children do come from God, problem is, and I am not the father of this one. Mary said the baby is going to be the Messiah and God is the real Father. That kind of statement didn’t play well in Nazareth and doesn’t play well in Seattle. When the Scripture says he wanted to put her away privately, I wonder if he had an institution in mind. As he is considering this, Matthew said he went to sleep. There he discovered life is full of change. When he heard the news, “I’m pregnant and your not the father.” Spoken, his instant response was he wanted nothing to do with Mary or the baby. And who would blame him. He had been betrayed, or so it seemed. Mary was speaking irrationally or so he thought. They were looking, believing in Messiah coming, and Mary is a nice girl and all, but they were not expecting Him to come as a baby and, well, Joseph never thought himself to be the stepfather of God’s Son kind of stuff. That is, until he thought about it, until he slept on it.
What about you? You have discovered if you have been alive for a short period of time that life is not always what it seems. You have discovered life is full of change. You have experienced life’s wrong turns, or what you imagine to be wrong turns. So where are you at with the need for a miracle?
Horace starting reading this fairy tale about three princes from the island of Ceylon who had set out for pursuit of great treasures. Seems these three guys found out life was full of change as well. They never found what they were searching for. We need to understand…
III. Life’s dilemmas make way for God’s delights.
While Joseph is considering one of life’s dilemmas, the angel tells him For the child within her has been conceived by the Holy Spirit. And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus for he will save his people from their sins. (Matthew 1:20, 21).
You can argue the irrational thinking of someone. I just bought an early pregnancy test at 7-11, the water turned blue and it wasn’t tidy bowl. I’m pregnant, and you are not the father, it’s God’s. I know because an angel told me so. How do you argue when that same angel drops by to pay you a house call? Angels still do that today, did you know. For house calls, not announcements of an Immaculate Conception announcements, to deliver news of God’s miracles. Do you have a need? Are you ready for God’s response? Perhaps by an angelic announcement? Or perhaps not.
Have you ever felt like quitting? It might be your job, or your marriage, or on your children, on God, or even on life?
Arthur Gordon wrote in A Touch of Wonder of a man who had been stricken with polio at age three. His parents abandoned him to a New York City hospital. Taken in by a foster family he was sent to a warmer climate in Georgia with hopes it would improve his health. What did improve his condition was an elderly woman, Maum Jean, who took the “frail, lost, lonely little boy” into her heart. For six years daily massaging his weak legs, administering her own hydrotherapy in a nearby creek, and encouraging him spiritually with her stories, songs and prayers until one day the Lord spoke to her in a dream and said this boy who everyone else had given up on, this boy who was one of life’s dilemmas, was about to experience one of God’s delights. His miracle was about to be born. She took him in the backyard, took off his braces and said, “I want you to walk over to me.” The boy rationalized why he could not but she continued to urge him on. He burst into tears, begging her, pleading with her not to make him try, it could not be done. Her voice rose, no longer gently and coaxing but full of power and command, “You can walk, boy! The Lord has spoken! Now walk over here.” The boy took one faltering step and then another until he had reached her, falling into her arms, both of them in tears. It took two more years before he could walk normally. He had overcome one of life’s dilemmas to encounter the miracle of God’s delight.
Do you have a growing anticipation? Are you allowing God the opportunity to speak to and through you? Are you ready to receive His miracle for you?
As Horace read the fairy tale, he found out the three princes although they never found what they were searching for, en route they were constantly surprised by delights, which they had never anticipated. While looking for one thing, they found another.
Joseph discovered the truth, the crippled young boy discovered nothing is a barrier when love is strong enough, not age, not race, not disease, not anything, and what is it that Horace discovered? One more thing we need to learn when life takes a wrong turn and I need a miracle.
IV. Life is best lived by expecting the unexpected.
When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord commanded. He brought Mary home to be his wife, but she remained a virgin until her son was born. And Joseph named him Jesus.
God uses ordinary people, people like Mary and Joseph, people like Maum Jean, people like Horace Walpole to do extraordinary things in life. Joseph did not grow up thinking, I am going to play a major role in the coming of the Messiah. When he was engaged to Mary he did not think I am going to get married and raise the Messiah. It was not in his wildest imagination to think he would be the one to name the Messiah Jesus. He just wanted to get by in life. To marry, to have children, to provide for them by earning a decent living, and to be cared for in old age. God delights in blessing us with the unexpected. The miracle none thought was possible but nothing is impossible to God.
For Joseph, he was the dad to the Son of God. I wonder what Jesus calls him in heaven? Probably Joseph. For Maum Jean it was the miracle of seeing this young man walk again overcoming his polio. What is the blessing God has for you? What is His miracle in your life when it seems life has taken a wrong turn?
You are probably wondering about Horace Walpole aren’t you? You don’t know his name but you might know something about him. The three princes in the book he was reading were from Ceylon, but the name of the book reflected the name of the island before it became Ceylon. The book was titled “The Three Princes of Serendip” and Horace coined the word Serendipity from which he taught us the most significant and valued experiences we have are those that happen when we are least expecting them.
It is my prayer that each of you have a serendipitous adventure in life, that your miracle comes, maybe not in the wrapping and size you want but in a bigger and better package wrapped by God himself. I want to take a moment to pray this with you, so think of that miracle and began to expect the unexpected from God.
