The Holy Family’s Journey And Ours

When we visited Egypt some years back our tour group was led into a Coptic Church in Cairo. There in the narthex was a map of the Holy Family's journey during the years they stayed in Egypt to avoid the wrath of King Herod. As you will remember, Joseph was told by an angel to take Mary and the Child and flee to Egypt (Matthew 2:23). Being a Christian from the West, I had never known anything about this ancient tradition or anything about the sites held sacred by the Christians living in that ancient land.

Be Thou There: The Holy Family’s Journey in Egypt - The Sacred Geography of the Coptic Church is a summary of those beliefs and traditions.

Whatever I may make of this tradition, I am reminded by it that many families are traveling during this busy Christmas/New Year holiday season. Massive snow storms in many places have made this very difficult. The system dumped 14 inches on Oklahoma City and left even Dallas with a light covering for Christmas. Normally our family would be traveling at this time of the year. I can remember other years when we had perilous journeys either going or coming from Colorado.

In all of this I am grateful for reminders that our Lord Jesus whose birth we celebrate during these days sends His holy angels to watch over and keep us in His care. For instance, consider the words of 120 year old Moses as the Israelites prepared to enter the Holy Land a second time. Powerful enemies and fortified cities blocked their way, but Moses, speaking for the Lord Jesus, said,

"Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the Lord your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you" (Deuteronomy 31:6).

So what ever storm faces you today or in the new year, find your comfort and strength in the guiding and leading hand of our loving Savior whose coming among us we celebrate and who says now, "I am with you always, to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20).

In Him we can look forward to a blessed new year whatever our circumstances.

Joseph, Model Father

On Christmas Day one thinks about family. Today I got an email greeting describing exactly the same kind of Christmas we had when I was a child, living on a farm in southern Minnesota. My father would rush to get the cows milked a little early and then we were off to the children's Service on Christmas Eve. My sister, my mother and I would all be in the car ready to go. Then Dad would say he forgot something and rush back into the house. In a few minutes he would be back out and off we'd go. After the Service we would come back, rush into the house and lo and behold, Santa Claus had been there to bring us all those wonderful gifts. It was a grand fantasy and great fun.

Not much is said about the Father Joseph in the meditations upon Christmas, yet it could not have happened without him. Who was this man who appears briefly and then disappears completely from the Scriptural record? We know nothing about when he was born, nor how old he was when Jesus was born. No record survives of when he died. All we know for certain is that he, like Mary, was a descendant of King David (Matthew 1:16; Luke 2:23). He protected his family, cared for them in Egypt and helped them settle back in Nazareth (Matthew 2:23; Luke 2:39). He was still around twelve years later when the family went to Jerusalem (Luke 2:51).


Joseph was a τεκτων, a Greek word that has usually been translated as carpenter (Matthew 13:55a), but often had a far wider meaning in common Greek. It could refer to any artisan working with wood and metal. It could even refer to a poet.


The Wikipedia article on Joseph lists a modern book discussing Joseph's historical fatherhood and the principles we modern fathers can draw from it: Fatherhood Principles of Joseph the Carpenter: Examples of Godly Fatherhood by Akili Kumas.


In any event Joseph remains as a model of a loving husband and father, providing loving care and protection and teaching godly character. With humility and thanks I remember my own father in the same way. He too was a τεκτων, for that is what a farmer had to be in those days. But he was also a godly man who in love cared for his family.


On this day I join everyone who so remembers his/her father. A blessed Christmas to all. 

Wake Up—The Light Is Already Shining.

Things were quiet in my daughter's household as I arose this morning. As the old poem goes, "Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse." I was the first one to stir and step out into the kitchen to make the coffee. I cannot begin the day without a good cup of coffee. However, to do that I had to find the light switch, something that is not easy to do in a somewhat unfamiliar kitchen. But finally I managed and now I set here with my first steaming cup, ready to begin the day.

That night the shepherds were in the field keeping watch over their flock was also a dark one. I imagine that sheep watching must count among the world's most boring jobs. Then suddenly came this bright light. Luke calls it "the glory of the LORD," shining all around them. The darkness was quite unexpectedly illuminated—and they were afraid (Luke 2:9).

The Bible uses familiar occurrences, like the darkness of night and the light of day, to speak about spiritual matters. When God's people were struggling with depression and despair, feeling forsaken in the foreign land of Babylon, forced to work as slaves, they referred to their condition as "walking in darkness" (Isaiah 9:2). Nothing was going right. The future was bleak and they had little hope of ever returning to their homeland. They couldn't see any daylight.

In their history it had been that way hundreds of years before, way back in the days of Moses, when they had been slaves in Egypt. Then suddenly, quite unexpectedly, God graciously intervened and forced Pharaoh to set them free. Out in the desert, gathered before Mount Sinai, the Glory of the Lord came down—and they were afraid (Exodus 19:17-20; Exodus 20:18). And no wonder. The whole mountain shook with thunder, lightning, the sound of a great trumpet, fire and smoke. Who wants to sit at the foot of a mountain that appears to become a huge volcano, spewing out lava, fire and death?

When the Glory of the Lord appeared to the shepherds of Bethlehem it was not like that. There was not thunder, lightning and earthquakes. Instead a wondrous choir of angels began to sing about peace, hope and a Savior. The long-awaited Messiah had come and they would find Him in a manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes.

There's still plenty of darkness, despair and death in the world of the 21st century. But as we celebrate yet another Christmas, we are reminded again that our Light has come, come in the person of a Child.

A Merry Christmas to all!