The first few years of Jesus’ life had to be a wild ride for Joseph, the man God chose to be His father on earth. First, his fiancée became pregnant, and he had to trust that this truly was God’s doing and not unfaithfulness—now that’s a pretty big step of faith all on its own. She was carrying the Son of God and Savior of the world, but they were traveling when she went into labor, and there was no room for them in the inn, so she placed this newborn Savior in a manger. Then Joseph was warned in a dream to flee to Egypt, and they stayed there until Herod’s death because Herod had heard about Jesus and was actively searching to kill Him. After Herod died, an angel appeared to Joseph again in a dream and told them to return to Israel. However, they heard Herod’s son was the new ruler of Judea, so they settled in a small town called Nazareth. This probably felt very chaotic for Joseph. I wonder if he ever questioned, “Is this really part of God’s plan? Is it supposed to happen like this?”

In Numbers 13, we find the Lord telling Moses to gather men to scout out the land that He was giving them to see what it was like. Notice the Lord Himself had already said, “the land I’m giving to the Israelites” (Numbers 13:1). Not the land He was thinking about giving to them—but the land their all-powerful God had already decided was theirs. Despite knowing this, ten of the twelve men came back with a posture of fear and doubt.

I have a HUGE appreciation for any movie or TV series that intentionally foreshadows what is to come in the smallest details—especially if there’s a big plot twist that no one saw coming. Hidden in plain sight but completely obvious when you watch it a second time? Standing ovation from me. I love this kind of artistry.

It’s almost spring, and that’s got me thinking a lot about growth. I see tiny buds beginning to form on my plants outdoors. I have really been looking forward to warmer weather, so I am excited to see the signs that mark a changing season.

When you read about the Israelites in the Bible, you can see that they didn’t always make the brightest choices. After experiencing all the miracles back-to-back in escaping Egypt—from being completely unharmed plague after plague to walking across the miraculously parted Red Sea—these people still got impatient so quickly in a moment of waiting. When they grew bored with waiting on Moses, they decided to take matters into their own hands. They melted all their gold down, making a “god” out of their own wealth and resources, and claimed that this was actually what got them out of Egypt the whole time.