Devotions Archive Archive: 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 Search Archive Print This Article To sleep, perchance to dream... Sunday, December 30, 2001 Matthew 2:13-23 ...an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up," he said, "take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt." ... so he got up ... After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel" ... so he got up ... Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. At the beginning of the movie "Godspell," a motley crew of New Yorkers, walking the streets surrounded by crowds of people just like them, hear something no one else hears. The ram's horn wails, a lone voice chants, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord!" And these few folks follow the sound they hear, turn away from the city, and they find Jesus. God entrusted himself to a man and woman, and then he entrusted his messages to their dreams. Joseph and Mary's ears were open. My ears are not always open, but these stories from the life of this holy family inspire me to open them again. Elizabeth-Anne Stewart writes, "Mary and Joseph model for me what it is to attend to God's voice. Their example invites me to listen more intently to the word God speaks in my heart, in waking and in sleeping. This word, the word of life, calls me to protect that which is precious, to flee all that is destructive and to make my 'home' in places of safety. Like Joseph, may I respond." Open me to your wisdom, O God, that I may hear the word of life. "; Add      Edit    Delete