Mary's Vision, Joseph's Dream

I've been wondering again -- in the wonder of the whole Incarnation story that keeps leaving me with my mouth open in amazement -- about the stories of Mary, in Luke's gospel, and Joseph in Matthew's account.  The idea that God would become one of us is just beyond me. It was beyond Joseph and Mary too. That's why the angel appeared to them. But my question is,
why did the angel appear to each of them, separately?  Why not wait until they were together on a date or something, and then reveal it to both at once? It would have saved a lot of fuss and bother, not to mention time. Shoot, they could have gotten married before everybody else knew Mary was pregnant, and wouldn't that have solved a lot of problems?

I wonder about these things because I have a simplistic mind. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line, and that's the path everybody should always take, and save all the floundering around. But God's mind is not like mine (that's a good thing) so maybe he had a different goal.

Contrary to how I would have done it, the angel appeared to Joseph only after he started dealing with his worries of what to do about Mary's pregnancy. The Lord let the situation develop before giving Joseph his calling, and Joseph got to make a decision to accept God's command to adopt the unborn baby as his own. (And we get a really cool story of a dedicated, loving man.)

But isn't that just how God does things? He planned before time to adopt us as his beloved children,  and he presents the offer (absolute love, forever, in perfect peace with no end!), but we get to decide whether to accept. Accepting our adoption is a lot easier than the decisions Mary and Joseph were faced with -- but deciding to follow Jesus still demands we give up everything (Matthew 16:24).

Joseph got up the next morning and was faithful to God's call (Matt. 1:24). We get to do the same thing every morning, don't we?  God doesn't take our trials from us -- he tells us, like he told Joseph, how to deal with the circumstances of our trials, and every morning, we have to choose to follow.

The result of our decision might not be as dramatic as Mary and Joseph experienced, but the effect can be dramatic. Do you want to fully experience the love of God in your life?  The daily dedication of time and energies to God and a willing sacrifice of our talents and treasures to him makes that a reality.  Is a connection to God at the deepest level of your being, worth some time practicing 'holy habits' every day?  Is a peaceful inner self, or the ability to be truly loving to your spouse and others, worth a determined decision to let go of the 'old man' and take on the mind of Christ through habits of surrender and self-sacrifice? If it is, then let's do what Mary did after her vision, and Joseph after his dream -- get up and get going to follow our calling in Christ (Heb. 3:1).