Excuse me, did you say GOD got you pregnant....Riiiiiight.

For a minute, just put yourself in his shoes.
You are engaged to be married and you are excited for your future.
Then one day she lets you know she is pregnant.  You know the child isn't yours.
There is no way it could be yours, you have been faithful to her.  You have been faithful to your God and your religion. 
But obviously, she wasn't faithful to you, to God or to her commitment to marriage.  Shes now pregnant with some other person's baby.  And boy does she have a doozy of an excuse. 

How would you react?

This is not a hard situation for me to imagine myself in right now.  I'm engaged to be married to Amy in March.  If she came to me right now and said, "oh yeah, by the way, I'm pregnant", I would be devastated.  I would be angry.  I would be hurt. I would be livid.
In our pre-marital counseling, we have discussed what are "unforgivables" in marriage.  For me, adultery is one of them.  I've had 2 other long term relationships, both of which ended because of my girlfriend cheating on me.  It's a sore subject for me.  It's a touchy topic. 

How did Joseph react?

Matthew 1: 19 says that "Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly." 

I imagine many folks in today's culture would react in a much different way.  I have seen time and time again folks trying to make a public disgrace of the person that hurt them. 

I can relate to Joseph though, I doubt I would try to "publicly disgrace" Amy, but I would struggle with staying with her in that situation. 

But Joseph stays.  After having an Angel of the Lord appeared to him to confirm Mary's outrageous story, Joseph sticks around. 

Unfortunately, most of us have not had the luxury of having an Angel of the Lord coming directly to us.  However, I can guarantee that all of us have had a relationship broken.
We have all had someone not live up to the expectations we have had for them.

For some people, it's their parents that let them down; others it is a significant other.  Some it has been their best friend, sibling or their own child.  For some of you, it could be the church, or your pastor.  For some of you, it could even be me. 
Whoever it may be, we've all been hurt by someone.  We've all been disappointed. 

But I can promise you one thing...
This Christmas, God would love to help heal that broken relationship.  God would love to bring about healing for both you and for the person who broke your trust.

You could be on either side of the broken trust.  You may have been the one to break the trust and you may have been the one whose trust was broken.  Either way, God wants to bring about healing.


Who is it for you?  What relationship for you needs to be healed?
One of the greatest gifts you may give someone this Christmas is to go to them and let them know that you forgive them. 
Or it could be to go to them and let them know how sorry you are to have messed things up. 

I truly believe that there is likely not one person reading this right now that doesn't have at least one relationship that needs healed. 

Do not let this Christmas go by without seeking out at least one person in your life that either needs your forgiveness, or you need theirs.