Just a simple thought about trusting and listening and obeying God. In the passage just prior, the Magi found Jesus and worshiped Him and gave to Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. While we aren't told the cash value, we do know that the Magi believed that they were paying tribute to the future king of Israel. It is not a stretch to assume that these gifts had a good amount of cash value -especially to a young carpenter displaced from his home with a wife and son to support. It was a windfall of sorts. This windfall must have produced some thought about how to use this to best provide for a secure future.
But then an angel came and instructed them to flee to Egypt. Once again they were displaced -this time as foreigners and outsiders. In Egypt they had to survive for several years. But, of course, God had already provided for them financially. What had seemed like a windfall was God's excellent provision for a future that He knew was coming and they didn't know was coming.
As I'm reading this story, I find myself wondering if this has ever happened to me and I, maybe, didn't recognize it. What would have happened if Joseph treated this windfall as I sometimes treat "good luck?" What if Joseph, using his own best thinking had immediately invested his windfall in a new set of carpentry tools and a new wood shop -logical investments.
And, right now as my family experiences a season of financial difficulty, I'm wondering if God, knowing what was ahead, made provision, and I, not knowing what was ahead, spent God's provision on other things. I'm not a horrible steward of God's money. We live frugally and well within our means. Yet, as I'm reading this story and pondering, it is possible that I am sometimes unaware of God's "pre-provision," and end up relying on my own best thinking as to how to invest/spend life's little windfalls.
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