No Fixed Abode
Opening Prayer
Think of those who have no safe place to call their own. Pray for them before you read today’s passage.
Read Matthew 2:13-18
[13] When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” [14] So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, [15] where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.” [16] When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. [17] Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: [18] “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.” Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
How does God preserve the life of the young Jesus?God chose Joseph to be Jesus’ earthly father. He is a considerate and honorable man (cf. 1:19,24) and open to God speaking to him in dreams (cf. 1:20). So when the angel of the Lord appears to Joseph again (13), telling him to take Mary and Jesus at once to Egypt, he starts out promptly on the long journey (14). The peril that Jesus escapes is no idle threat. Herod the Great has all of the baby boys in Bethlehem indiscriminately slaughtered, just out of the hope that one of them would be his imagined rival (16-18). The plight of Joseph and Mary as refugees, escaping from violence and making a long journey through a country under occupation to safety, is sadly still reflected in the experience of thousands of people today. Ordinary families are forced to leave their homes by famine or the horrors and insecurities of civil war. There is often no safe haven for them. Countries where they try to settle are not always welcoming, and they can encounter ethnic aggression. What will happen to them?
Apply
Ask yourself how you welcome those refugees who have come to your community.
Closing prayer
Pray for today’s refugees and ask God for opportunities to give assistance and comfort to them.
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