This Advent, Prepare to Come Alive
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When I look at Joseph, and when I look at Mary, and see how Jesus and our salvation came to be, it is really through the trust in God of these two holy parents of Jesus. Joseph and Mary trusted what they heard through God’s messengers.
They trusted when God was doing confusing and mysterious things that they just could not quite understand through the lens of their religious traditions and societal norms. They were open to the new work of the Holy Spirit that transcended what they knew to be true and right.
In your own life, you probably have also witnessed situations where an in-breaking of something wonderful, glorious, or joyful was preceded by needing to trust in God through something confusing, mysterious, or incomprehensible. For God to work, you had to trust the leading of the Holy Spirit.
Just like Joseph. Just like Mary.
Yet trust in God is one of the most difficult lessons of faith we learn. It’s hard to trust when things feel out of sorts, strange, uncertain, mysterious, or full of doubts. It’s hard to trust when you can only see the next step versus the whole plan. It’s hard to trust when you just have no idea what God is doing in a particular situation. It’s hard to trust when we can’t understand something that doesn’t fit within our lens of how things are supposed to work.
But trust in God, as you see, is the foundation of our salvation and journey with God. It was how Christ came into this world. It’s also how Christ comes into our own unique worlds – how we navigate this life to get closer to God here on earth and then eventually to heaven above. We don’t get there through anything but learning to trust in God more and more faithfully with each passing year. Trust in God leads to our salvation.
So how do we do that?
One way we can learn to better trust is by recollection: remembering God’s goodness and faithfulness to us, specifically those times where God broke through and did something amazing for us. If we look back, we find that God’s been there all along, leading us to the right places that are best for us. The path may be unique or different then we expected, but God was there with us. So we can trust that He always will be.
During this last week of Advent, O Come Emmanuel. Help us trust like Mary and Joseph. Be with us along the way.
Katie Zalany lives in Cleveland Ohio. She is a Third Order Secular Franciscan (OFS), spiritual director, benefits/wellness leader, certified health and life coach, and volunteer. She is the creator of the ministry Women in Waiting | Made for Fruitfulness and is a published author. Her writing interests and focus areas include Gospel reflections, Franciscan spirituality, women's spirituality, prayer, and integration of faith and daily living.
