A Vision of the Holy Family

Husband-Wife-Child the Family as God intended it. From the beginning, when God first made man, He knew man was not meant to survive alone. Man was meant to have a partner, someone to walk through life with, someone to share laughter and love with, someone to reflect a fraction of the Love God felt for man. Even in the Garden of Eden where nothing ever hurt man, the Lord knew loneliness might be an issue. God, in His infinite Wisdom, knew man would need a partner to physically be by his side daily and so God gave Adam Eve.

Thousands of years later, the Lord produced His Son, Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit. The God, the one God, omnipotent, omniscient, God, Father of All could have given Mary the strength to bear that child alone. He could have given her an awesome job and set her up in a sweet little palace on the outskirts of town. He could have given her servants for her beck and call. He could have provided her with armed guards and angle armies.

But He didn’t.

Instead, He provided her with a simple man, a carpenter, a man named Joseph.

And together with the most precious infant, they formed the Holy Family.

We see this family together and celebrate their Goodness in a special feast day, Jesus at the center. Jesus who could call the wrath of Heavens down upon those who wish to hurt Him, is placed between His earthly parents. Mary and Joseph standing behind Him protectively, watchfully, silently.

Jesus, who can do anything, be anything, go anywhere, Jesus, Son of the one perfect Father, was given an earthly Father to be present in His every day life, a father to teach Him to walk and talk, a father to bounce Him on his knee and make Him laugh aloud, a father to kick a ball and play catch with, a father to talk to about friendships and women and peer pressure, a father to teach Him a trade helping Him provide material and financial well-being for His family, a father to hold His hand in good times and bad, a father to physically represent the Love that the Father has for each of us made in His image.

Jesus, who could have arrived in a golden chariot, was instead delivered in a stable to a Mother, gentle and strong. Jesus was given a Mother to comfort and guide Him, a mother humble enough to deliver in a stable, a Mother to hold Him to her breast and nurse Him, giving Him nourishment and warmth the human Lord could not provide for Himself, a Mother to pick out His clothes each day and take Him to market when He had outgrown His sandals, a Mother determined to find Him when He was preaching in the temple, a mother to listen quietly, taking in what even she could not comprehend, a Mother teaching Him, even in His infinite wisdom, the value of Faith in a Loving, Just, Forgiving God, a Mother strong enough, loving enough, trusting enough to stay with Him as He was nailed to the Cross and drew those last shuddering breaths when time both stood still and passed too quickly all at once.

And we see Jesus, the Child, the center of the family. The child Joseph embraced without understanding how or why He was given to him. The child Joseph swore to protect, the child Mary swore to nourish body, mind, and soul, the child we see listening, learning, loving, the child who would lead the world but still yield to His earthly parents, the child who had every right to stamp His royal foot and selfishly demand things be different, that He be given the toys He wanted, that He be allowed the freedom to do what everyone else was doing, the child who would never do those things, the child the parents would give their lives for had they been given the chance, the child placed in front of his family, the Leader of millions not placed in front to lead his parents, although He would certainly do that too, but a child they placed in front of them, a child they would sacrifice for and provide for and pray for, and would protect and watch over and shower with Love.

And the balance of the family was perfect,

as God intended it, reflecting the Trinity.

Father-Son-Holy Spirit.

Husband-Wife-Child.

Please join me later in the week as I discuss single parenting and the Holy Family. Thank you.

photo credit

God Bless…