The associated reading for this reflection can be found in your Every Sacred Sunday Mass journal or online here.
It’s amazing how many of us have specific ideas about how our family life is going to be before we have kids. “My kids will never scream in Mass”. “I’ll make sure my kids know how to act in a store”. “My kids will never talk like that to me”. And on. I have to admit, I’m guilty of saying these things and more. But the Lord often throws us curve balls that we don’t expect. After all, our children make us holy, and holiness is not easy.
I wonder what plans Mary and Joseph had for their baby? Although most of our Nativity sets depict the wisemen arriving as soon as Jesus was born, it was probably more likely that he was around the age of 3 when he received gold, frankincense, and myrrh. We hear in the Gospel today that the Holy Family is told to depart for Egypt as soon as the wisemen left. Have you ever had to travel to a faraway country with a 3 year old, with no family or friends to help you? I haven’t, and I wouldn’t want to. Jesus was God, yet He was like us in all ways but sin- which means he probably cried when he was hungry or tired, wanted to be carried, asked for a snack every 20 minutes, and all the fun 3-year-old antics. What sort of plans were disrupted by this sudden move? Although Mary and Joseph were no stranger to the idea of disrupted plans, this journey was yet another opportunity to “fiat” and choose God’s way over their own.
Although we know in our minds that the Lord’s ways are better than our own, disrupted plans are almost always met by resistance. How ironic is it that I have asked the Lord so many times to “use me for His glory”, but then when He actually takes the reins, I resist. What plans has the Lord disrupted in your own life? Here is your invitation: take a notecard and write down every time the Lord has come through for you when you were at a crossroads or faced disrupted plans, and keep it with you to look back on every time things don’t turn out the way you hoped. Just like the Holy Family, God invites us to surrender our expectations to Him. You may find that the very thing you’ve been praying for lies on the unexpected path.
Jennifer Stavinoha lives in Bryan, TX with her husband and three little girls. She loves reading, teaching theology to anyone who will listen, and judging international figure skating from her couch. Jennifer is a content creator for Ablaze Families, Ablaze Ministries' parent outreach ministry. To find out more, check out Ablaze Families on Instagram or connect with Jennifer here.
