By Lydia Dyck, a sophomore biology major from Durham, Ontario
Scripture: Matthew 1:18-25 (NRSV)
In literary terms, a dilemma can be defined as a situation where the hero or heroine must decide between one of two bad outcomes. Now, you’d think that in fiction the hero could say, “Now wait just a minute, I don’t want either one of those. I don’t want to jump off a cliff or battle this evil villain to my death. Instead, I’m going to pull out some of this chocolate cake I’d been saving and share it with the aforementioned villain, and we can discuss the coolest sword moves of the age.” If we take a step back from this scene, we can see that the hero did not actually start with a two-option choice, the situation presented him with hundreds of possibilities, but the difference was that the hero had enough imagination to see them.
Take Joseph as an example. A righteous, hardworking man who sincerely tries to be a good person all his life. When a culturally disgraceful situation arises and Mary is suddenly with child, he plans to do the best thing possible in this dilemma; to dismiss her quietly. Joseph’s failure in this situation is that he doesn’t use his imagination. If he had thought past the dilemma and been creative, maybe asking Mary what really happened, he might have seen the situation in a different way.
How often are we blinded by binary choices like Joseph? How often have we gotten caught up in the simplistic or overly complicated options that our society gives us about the trends we must follow or the ways we must act. We need to realize how special a gift creativity is. Let’s try to think past the limiting options that dilemmas wave in front of our faces and be the creative human God made us to be.
Scripture: Matthew 1:18-25 (NRSV)
Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. 20But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 23“Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.” 24When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, 25but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.