¹⁸This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹Joseph, to whom she was engaged, was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly. ²⁰As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. ²¹And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” ²²All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet: ²³“Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’” ²⁴When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife. ²⁵But he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born. And Joseph named him Jesus.

Matthew 1:18-25

I am rarely at a loss for words, particularly when I give my thoughts time to coalesce into coherent words that can be formed into understandable sentences. When I read this passage, however, words evade me. There is a sense in which this passage highlights the utter thoroughness with which God implemented his plan to send Jesus to earth as our Messiah.

It wasn’t just Mary who needed to be brought on board, so to speak, but also Joseph. The culture into which Jesus was born was patriarchal, meaning that the male head of household led society. It would have been within Joseph’s “rights” to broadcast Mary’s pregnancy. He considered separating from her quietly. God had other ideas. He sent the angel to bring Joseph on board as well.

It occurs to me I can trust God implicitly to care for the details of my life and the plans he has for me. I do not believe he will leave me out to dry or call me into something that he has not adequately taken care of the details. He can be trusted. There is nothing he has left out of planning, no details gone unattended to.

When you consider your future, whether it is in six minutes or six months or six years — can you trust him with the details? It seems to me he has it covered.