Galatians 4:4

…⁴But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, ….

Expectations are often very wrong indeed; even when we have lots of information about events we will be involved in. We hope for so much, at times dream beyond imagination, ponder, think and meditate; all to be present in some way in what is not yet available to us. The new job, partner, house, car, holiday, church or business fill our minds and take for a test run our hopes yet to be realised. Ah, but then the reality. The holiday is passed; and the new partner? Well I’ll leave that up to you to complete. The point is this, mental events and imagination are real and very much part of us, but they may be very imprecise approximations to what we experience when the event we have been considering takes place in physical time and space. They are types, or models of what we will actually handle and participate in.  In ancient Israel the ordinary people, the religious, social and political leaders got very carried away with who they thought the Messiah was going to be. On reading and hearing the Hebrew Scriptures only a few of them accurately understood and recognised what Jesus would do and teach. They read and heard the scriptures and by interpreting them their own way they got it very wrong indeed. Some exceptions that spring to mind are recorded in Luke 2: shepherds, Simeon and Anna recognised Jesus as a baby to be the promised One who would set His people free. They all accepted what God said about His Messiah and they were blessed by divine revelation. We too have access to what has been written about Jesus. What conclusions have we drawn? Do we accept what the bible says that at the right time God sent His Son to save us from imagining ourselves to be the people we are not? The story of Jesus is presented in scripture as a set of answers to our personal and community needs. It’s a story that demands a response either by accepting what Jesus does and teaches and follows him by putting these things into practice or rejects Him as portrayed in scripture. We shouldn’t let our imagination run to far ahead of the story. If we do, biblical history demonstrates that we will get it very wrong indeed.