We have our plans. Some of us may not be detailed planners or goal setters, but we have a general expectation of how we think things should turn out in our lives. Grow up... go to college... get married... have a good job... have great kids that love us... grow old gracefully... and when the time has come, slip peacefully into sleep and awaken with the Lord in heaven.

    Then reality hits us head on and as a result of the collision, our dreams lie shattered like pebbles of broken glass on the pavement as the emergency lights reflect eerily off our fragmented and obliterated plans.

    “Where is God in this?” we ask. “After all, I was a faithful Christian! How could this have happened to me?”

    The “this” that “happened to me” could be a host of life-jarring collisions — a broken engagement, a sick child, a terminal illness, a spouse who leaves saying they never loved us in the first place, a business partner who steals us blind, or a moral failure we let ourselves commit.

    So often at Christmas time, the sentimentality of season makes us lose touch with what Jesus’ birth really means. So Matthew writes his Gospel so we don’t forget that the birth of Jesus is about a collision of dreams for many people, but most particularly Joseph and Mary. Think about the collision that happens in their world! With simple plans of a nice marriage, life in the carpenter shop, having kids, living quietly and simply in Nazareth now suddenly blown away by an unexpected pregnancy before they were married. And Joseph knows it’s not his child. Suddenly the sentimentality is gone and the grit of the real world is where God enters to do his work of saving his people.

    If you read chapter 1 of Matthew, there are three triumphant truths the Holy Spirit has for us in the birth of Jesus. These truths are to guide us and encourage us when we have our collision of dreams just like Joseph and Mary had theirs.

    The first triumphant truth is that we are part of a great heritage of faith. So often in modern Western culture, our individualism cuts us off from the world of history and isolates us in self-interest. The list of names in Matthew 1, including both men and women, is a great reminder that God’s work in the world is done by a great stream of people. Each had a part and purpose to play in God’s work. Each may have appeared for only a few years on the tapestry of God’s grace, but their colorful thread was important and brought blessings to others they may never have realized this side of glory. How would Naomi have ever guessed when she lost her home because of famine along with her husband and her two sons in death, that her foreign daughter-in-law, Ruth, would go back home with her and help her become the great grandmother of King David. (See the book of Ruth and Matthew 1:5-6) Of course there are many other great stories that remind us that God is at work on a grander scale than we can see, using us to achieve a glory beyond our imaginations even in times when our personal dreams are shattered.

God’s people are people of character regardless of circumstance.

    The second triumphant truth in Matthew 1 is that God’s people are people of character regardless of circumstance. Look at Joseph and imagine his heartbreak when he learns Mary is pregnant. (vs. 19) Imagine the sense of betrayal he must have felt and the shattered dreams he had. Yet rather than being vindictive, he wants to handle things quietly so Mary isn’t shamed. Most men today would want her shamed for such a betrayal. Then, after he learns in the vision of God’s plan, he still treats her honorably while the rumors and innuendos circulate about the baby Mary is carrying while she and Joseph still aren’t married! (vs. 24) We are reminded throughout the birth stories of Jesus of the character of simple people of faith on whom the Gospel of story is built — people like Joseph and Mary, Zechariah and Elizabeth, as well as Simeon and Anna. (Matthew 1-2; Luke 1-2) They remind us that the character of God’s people is not determined by culture or circumstance, but by commitment to God.

    The third triumphant truth is our God is faithful to his promises. No other Gospel emphasizes God’s faithfulness to fulfill what was said in the Scriptures long ago. (vs. 22) Even when things look dark and dreary and our dreams are shattered; God is working in us and through us to keep his promises. He will not leave us or forsake us. (Hebrews 13:5-6) He will work things out for our good and his glory. (Romans 8:28-29) That doesn’t mean we’ll get our wish list fulfilled or he will make sure no collisions take place in our life. It does mean, however, that our current agonies are not worth comparing the glory that will be revealed in us. (Romans 8:18)

    The story of Jesus’ birth is a gritty story about the broken dreams of a simple couple from Nazareth who were used by God to bring us all untold blessings. And while their life was most certainly much more difficult and challenging than they ever dreamed, they are part of God’s glorious heritage of faith, they were people of character who rose above their challenges, and God used them to help him keep his promises. So never think that broken dreams means that God has forgotten or abandoned you. You are part of his plans and he will bring you to glory through his work in you.

 

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Title: "Collision of Dreams"
Author: Phil Ware
Publication Date: December 9, 2002