For Many, Life is a Series of "What If's"

or "What Could Have Beens." Have you ever asked yourself "what if" or "what could have been" questions? If you haven't you are quite unusual. Maybe at times you have wondered "what would my life have been like if my family had been more affluent?"

In times of contemplation you may have mulled over the thought "what if I had gone further in school or pursued a different major at the graduate level?" Occasionally, many are given over to considerations related to "what if I had made a different choice at one of the major cross-roads in my life?" It is also possible that you have even wondered what the impact on your life would have been if your ancestors had handled their lives differently.

This last question is one that Joseph the husband of Mary the "stepfather" of Jesus might have asked himself. He could track his ancestors right back to King David (Luke 3:23-32). How different his life might have been if the kings of Judah had been God-fearing men. The line of David may still have been sitting on the throne in Joseph's day experiencing the blessings of God. If that had been the case Joseph most likely would not have been a poor carpenter living in places such as Bethlehem, exile in Egypt and the disreputable town of Nazareth.

The decline and fall of Judah is recorded for us in the biblical account of 1st and 2nd Kings. During the reign of Jehoiakim, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon invaded the land of Judah for the first of three times. He did the same thing during the times of King Jehoiachin and King Zedekiah (See 2 Kings chapter 24). In the end all the people of Judah except the poorest had been taken captive to Babylon (2 Kings 25:12). In Joseph's day Rome had replaced Babylon as the oppressor of the people.

But God had a special plan for Joseph. It was better than being a part of an earthly kingly family. He was entrusted along with Mary to raise in his household the one who would eventually become the "Lord of all lords and King of all kings" (Rev. 17:14). In Joseph's life the earthly "could have beens" was replaced with the divine "appointment".

There is nothing wrong in musing about the "what ifs" of life. However, it is more important to focus on and be sensitive to the leading of Jesus Christ in our lives through the working of the Holy Spirit. If we have had disappointments in life related to the "could have beens" we must be able to say like the Apostle Paul "...Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus is calling us" (Philippians 3:13-14). When this is the case we like Joseph can view the events of our lives as "divine appointments".

Copyright. Bruce January 2006

Note: All quotes taken from the New Living Translation Second Edition.