Perhaps we’ve a lot to learn from Joseph and Mary. Joseph, committing himself to listening humbly and attentively to God.
And Mary welcoming into her heart, soul and body, the mystery of Emmanuel ‘God with us’.

We might also reflect on the part that discretion played in Joseph’s and in Mary’s life. Joseph always discretely there.
And Mary, getting on with what needs to be done.

This is so beautifully captured in Donald Swan’s lovely tryptic in the Cathedral of the Isles in Millport, where I used to take services from time to time.
In that, Mary is depicted in the stable, feeding her child so discretely that you’d hardly notice.

On this the Fourth Sunday of Advent, we should ask with them:

“What happens when we allow God to intrude into our nicely laid plans and decisions?”