rvaYM

And the star they had seen in the east guided them to Bethlehem. – Matthew 2:19

I can’t quite call a star to hover over the hospital when Baby Girl is born. And we’ve already been reminded that not everyone is on Facebook, so we’ll have to share the news the “old fashioned way.”

A few times recently, I have looked up at the clear night sky and seen stars shining bright. Imagine the thought of knowing that one of those stars was “speaking” to you!

I have been to the hospital a few times to see friends and their new babies. I get an e-mail, a text message, a phone call. That’s expected today.

In Mary and Joseph’s time, I am sure that a message would take a few days to get to anywhere out of town. Fortunately for Joseph, we can assume that his family had traveled to Bethlehem with them.

I supposed God can use whatever means he deems necessary to make an announcement. And a star is pretty cool.

Baby girl is great and we love her, but she’s not that cool, so a text message or e-mail or phone call will have to do.

She will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus. – Matthew 1:21

Choosing a name was hard.

The first baby name book I looked at had some very interesting, and non-realistic, options. Apparently it was the “best ever,” but I seriously doubt that.

In the end, we picked a really cool name, and I can’t wait for baby girl to be born so we can call her by her name (and for everybody else to know!).

In one message this Advent, Pastor Phil mentioned the fact that Joseph and Mary didn’t get to name their baby boy. How could they have picked a better name, though?

“The Lord saves.”

That’s why He came, that’s what His sacrifice was all about. It captured his mission in a word, in a name. His name.

What must that have felt like? One of the joys of the process of preparing for baby girl to come into our lives was to choose her name.

I can’t wait to see how baby girl lives out her name. Jesus did, why can’t she?

Joseph, her fiancé, was a good man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly. – Matthew 1:19

I guess it’s natural for parents to have some kind of worry. I worry about her teen years.

As one friend put it, with a boy, you have one boy to worry about; with a girl, you have thousands of boys to worry about.

Joseph couldn’t even get past the news of Mary’s pregnancy before he started to worry.

I worry about her future, but Joseph was worried about his own. Can you imagine the reactions people would give to his story?

“But it’s a holy child, conceived by God.”

“Uh huh, right. And you want me to believe that?”

It took an angel to clarify his role for him. I’m not expecting that kind of clarity, but I do know that we are committed to praying to God for our baby girl, for our role as parents and for every day of her life.

I will just strive to be the righteous kind of person that Joseph was. Maybe baby girl will pick up that attribute. If she does, we’ll be just right.