Life and Taxes

     They thought they were coming to pay taxes. Mary and Joseph. As they journeyed to Bethlehem. Taxes. And what an inconvenient time, too. Mary's baby was almost due. They had not read the prophecy and schemed to make it come true. They just lived their lives and let God lead them. Prophecy is important and beautiful, it is a light for us in dark places. It is a verification that God's word is true. But some Christians drive themselves, and others, crazy straining to see fulfillment, dissecting every news article for hints, picking the passages apart letter by letter. They have turned the blessing of prophecy into a burden.
     Our job is to read and study it, not make it happen. In the gospels we see prophecies about Christ spoken by unbelievers determined to kill him.  We should share prophecy, but not as if it is some secret, Gnostic knowledge only a few are clever enough to understand. Or as a way to scare unbelievers into heaven. The problem is, we are naturally biased to see life through the lens of our own time, nation and self importance. With prophecy, as in so many other areas, we tend to see what we want to see. False proclamations of dates and identifications of Antichrists, make Christians, and Christ Himself, look foolish. Maybe we should just be like Mary and Joseph, live our lives, pay our taxes, and let God's sovereignty work out the events that will fulfill His Story.