Imagine that you are engaged to be married, and your bride confesses that she is pregnant with someone else's child. The moment of discovery must be utterly awful. This would seem to me to be one of the most crushing of all experiences. All the hopes and expectations of starting a new life, of families coming together, are suddenly thin as smoke.

This is, of course, what happened to Joseph when he was told by Mary that she was bearing a child. He was prepared, we are told, to "divorce her quietly."

As he sleeps one night, an angel of the Lord comes to Joseph to let him in on God's plan to bless Mary with the Savior, conceived in pure grace. The angel's first words to Joseph are "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid."

Do not be afraid. If I were Joseph, fear would dominate my thoughts. What will happen to me? What will other people think? What am I going to do now? These are the questions I ask myself in a crisis. My mind races into the future, imagining all sorts of terrible scenarios.

Rarely do I ask, "What is God doing?" I tend to assume, if something happens that is not according to my plans, that it is definitely not the work of God. Some enemy has intervened to disrupt my good intentions for myself.

But that is precisely the question that Joseph is open to, as he listens and responds to the angel's message of hope and miracles. Mary has not been unfaithful, Joseph hears. Quite the contrary. She has been extraordinarily faithful to God.

No one would blame Joseph for slipping away quietly and letting the events that have taken place unfold without him. But he doesn't just listen to the message he is given, he responds. He is open to the idea that what seems like a disaster is actually the work of God, and he reverses his opinion of the situation.

We always pay a lot of attention to the end of the Advent story. Who can resist the image of the Christ child, surrounded by humble shepherds and cute furry animals? We don't always pay as much attention to the beginning of the story. Both Mary and Joseph are shocked and stunned by the work of God in their lives. More importantly, both are somehow able to embrace God's presence in the face of staggering uncertainty.

We are called to do the same. As we prepare for the arrival of Christ in our church year, we are to make room for Christ in our lives. We are to be open to things we never dreamed possible --- whether they seem like impossible blessings or crushing disasters.

While we will always ask, "What about me?" in the face of adversity, today we are also challenged to ask, "What might God be doing?" even when what is happening around us seems utterly awful. It just might be the beginning of something unthinkably wonderful.

Bill Peatman writes from Napa.