God as Protector and Guide of our Families

In today's  Gospel, Matthew 2: 13-15, 19-23, we are told that the magi completed their visit to Mary and Joseph and the infant Jesus.  The holy family was, at that point, in danger, as Herod was seeking a way to kill Jesus. Why? Because he perceived Jesus, the Messiah King and Savior of the world, as a threat to his power and kingship. Watching over the holy family,  God sends an angel to direct Joseph: "'Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you'....Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night, and departed for Egypt....When Herod had died, behold, the angel of the Lord [again] appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, 'Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the the land of Israel, for those who sought the child's life are dead.'"

Just as God protected the holy family, so, too, does God protect our families!  God is as solicitous for us made holy by Jesus' death and resurrection as He was for the biological holy family of Jesus, Mary, His mother, and Joseph, his foster father! God elicits the help of each parent, grandparent, and other relatives to secure the protection of His children. How sad when we let Him down. God, I believe, weeps when we abandon our responsibility to secure the well-being  of a child, including a child in its mother's womb.  God, I believe, weeps over immigrant children in cages, separated from their parents or when families are turned away from countries in which they are seeking asylum so as to raise their children in  in what they believed would be safe places. He weeps over children who are trafficked and/or sold to slave labor camps and abused in so many other ways. 

God, help us, as you helped Mary and Joseph protect Jesus. May we, like Joseph, be listening to Your instructions. May we let You be our Guide and Protector and use us as your reliable and responsible partners. I ask this in Jesus' name.