There isn’t much worse in a baseball game than a rain delay. Getting ready for the game, only to have it interrupted before it or during it is not just frustrating, but it can throw plans into complete disarray.
Players, fans, broadcasters, umpires…no one likes a rain delay. Some cause games to be postponed to a later date or sometimes simply finished many hours after it was scheduled to begin. Regardless, there’s just not much good about a rain delay.
The life of Jesus’ earthly father seems much like a baseball rain delay. He was a young Jewish carpenter, ready to begin life with the woman who would soon be his wife. He expected a normal and simple life, filled with normal and simple things, like getting married, raising children, working hard, and serving his God.
His life, however, was to be anything but normal and simple. In fact, because of God’s plans for him, his life would feel like one big rain delay. Jesus, said the angel Gabriel, would disrupt and delay every aspect of this young carpenter’s life.
Those wedding plans? Well, your wife is pregnant by the Holy Spirit, so congrats!
That wedding night? Well, you can’t consummate the marriage until she has that baby, so yeah.
That son you hope to hand off your business to one day? Well, your first born will actually be God’s son who will be the savior of the world, so no.
Every aspect of Joseph’s life was like a rain delay…interrupted, delayed, changed, overhauled. That’s what Jesus does. But all along, God called Joseph a righteous man, so the rain delay was worth it to experience God in that way.
Jesus will interrupt your life. And he will make it beyond anything you could have ever experienced if it stayed on schedule.
Let it rain, Lord!
Lord Jesus, when things don’t go like I planned them, help me to trust you. Amen.
