Another Way #adventbookclub – Day 37
Matthew 2:12-15, 19-23 (CEV)
12 Later they were warned in a dream not to return to Herod, and they went back home by another road.
The Escape to Egypt
13 After the wise men had gone, an angel from the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up! Hurry and take the child and his mother to Egypt! Stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod is looking for the child and wants to kill him.”
14 That night, Joseph got up and took his wife and the child to Egypt, 15 where they stayed until Herod died. So the Lord’s promise came true, just as the prophet had said, “I called my son out of Egypt.”
The Return from Egypt
19 After King Herod died, an angel from the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph while he was still in Egypt. 20 The angel said, “Get up and take the child and his mother back to Israel. The people who wanted to kill him are now dead.”
21 Joseph got up and left with them for Israel. 22 But when he heard that Herod’s son Archelaus was now ruler of Judea, he was afraid to go there. Then in a dream he was told to go to Galilee, 23 and they went to live there in the town of Nazareth. So the Lord’s promise came true, just as the prophet had said, “He will be called a Nazarene.”
The visitors from the East had to return a different way. The journey they had planned was not to be.
Joseph had to take his family to a different place than he intended. He could not return to his home – at least not yet.
There journeys were not what they expected.
We’ve all had unexpected journeys. One’s we weren’t expecting to make, ones that didn’t quite go to plan. I suspect many of us could write a whole book about them! They are usually incredibly stressful, not what we had planned. But as I mentioned at the start, our eldest son’s philosophy is that that is all part of the fun. Each delay is an opportunity, especially if it demands a detour to get to where you were going – or perhaps to end up somewhere else altogether. (Personally, I can do without that kind of excitement when trying to get somewhere – maybe I have something to learn)
As we come to the end of this #adventbookclub, and Maggi’s excellent book, how has our journey been? Has it taken us where we expected? Or have we learned new things, had different experiences? Heard God tell us things we never imagined?
And what about the journey onwards from here? For the end of the book is the beginning of the rest of our journey. And as Maggi reminds us (p166), we can never go back once we have encountered Jesus.
Where will we go? What will God show us? Where will he take us?
Are we ready to hear and to follow?
Thank you to everyone who has shared this journey, brought new insights, suggested different paths, shone the light so we could see the way ahead. And especially thanks to Maggi for writing the book.
This year, several of us are reading Beginnings and Endings by Maggi Dawn and joining together to comment on it. Do join us at the Adventbookclub Facebook page, follow #adventbookclub on Twitter or comment below. If you are also reading and blogging on this book, let me know and I will link to your blog.
Pam's Perambulation 
“And as Maggi reminds us (p166), we can never go back once we have encountered Jesus.”.
Sometimes I try… (won’t speak for anyone else…) and am reminded of the comment made by, I think, CS Lewis – that there are two kinds of people in this world – those who say to God “thy will be done” and those to whom God has to say, in sorrow, “go on then – have it your own way”! Trouble is, once we’ve known what it is to walk in the light, we can never really be satisified again with living any other way.
And for me, this Advent/Christmas season has taken me in a totally unexpected direction.
thank you to all who have blogged faithfully – your comments and thoughts have often shed light on my own path as I break into new territory.
I think, having set out boldly on the journey “a different way”, it is easy to become scared, disillusioned or just feel lost again. It’s not just setting out, but keeping checking our path
🙂 absolutely! and I’ve now learned that disobedience can cause the fog to descend… obedience means the fog lifts so that I can more easily discern my way across the tricky scree slope…
or in my case life is just very foggy! Therefore I ought to sit down more and try and work out where I am and where I should be going – and do it 🙂
yes. Important thing for negotiating fog is to carry map and compass, to know how to use them and above all to actually use them (most important of all says she, remembering the time she and OH came down off the wrong side of Blencathra due to failure to do that thing!)
And also to keep in close touch with the Guide who has (is?) the Light…
Oh, and also remembering that sometimes we’re suppposed to _not_ do something, however inocuous that thing might be in itself…
oh yes……
did you sense the deep feeling in what I wrote?!? 😀 I’ve spent a week saying “tomorrow maybe” as God has made increasingly clear to me things i’m to not do “for a season” to make space for something new… trouble is, I don’t know what the something new is, and rather like the things I’m to give up… ah well. 😉
No – I was talking to myself again 🙂
sounds as if we’re two women with but a single message from God coming to both of us! 😀
Journeying on. Been great travelling with you. ‘May the sun be on your face, the wind behind you and the road rise to meet your feet’
and also with you! Thanks for the company
[…] and now I’ve been enjoying reading Maggi’s thoughts on the passage as well as those of Pam and am hoping Graham gets his posted soon […]
ABC Day 37: The end is a new beginning – returning by another way | Like as the hart desireth the waterbrooks said this on January 6, 2014 at 11:26 pm |