Joseph

Whenever I hear the Christmas story, the emphasis always seems to be on Mary and, of course, Jesus. And that's fine... that's really good, actually. But let's not forget Joseph. Now, Joseph certainly ISN'T the focus of the Christmas story, nor should he be. But this Christmas season, Joseph has really stuck out to me. Not really sure why, just something about him. He has a cool story, I guess. He was destined to be married to Mary... then things kinda went wrong and he found out that she was pregnant-- and he wasn't the father. Whoops. That must have been heartbreaking for him. And yet, he didn't get really angry and want to kill Mary or anything... he wanted to divorce her quietly. And then, suddenly, one night, he has a dream and he's told that he's supposed to go ahead and take Mary as his wife because her baby is the SON OF GOD. Whoa. I don't know about you, but when I have dreams... I don't usually follow them. But Joseph knew that he was supposed to follow this dream, and so, in faith, he took Mary as his wife. And then there was a census, so with a pregnant wife, Joseph took a trip to Bethlehem. I'm guessing it was kinda stressful, seeing as how Mary was about ready to have that special baby. To make things harder, when Joseph and Mary got to Bethlehem, there was NO ROOM FOR THEM. I bet Joseph was starting to get a little panicked... but then an innkeeper found a place for them where he kept his animals -- probably a cave or something. It  must have been a relief to have some place to stay, but then the baby itself came. I'm kind of doubting that this was an easy birth, or that there was a midwife or something to help the deliver the baby. There was probably lots of blood, and Mary was probably in a lot of pain, and Joseph probably delivered the baby. Anyways, after the baby was born, things settled down, right? Not really. Herod decided to kill all the little baby boys... so Joseph took his family and FLED to Egypt... then later brought them back. And then he took care of his family, and helped to raise Jesus.

Joseph wasn't just a background character to the Christmas story or the life of Jesus. Joseph was there to support Mary, to support their family, and to be an earthly father to Jesus. I think what stands out to me most about Joseph is his faith. Because of a dream, he believed that the child within Mary WAS the son of God, and he had enough faith to go ahead and take her for his wife and care for her. When he was told (in a dream) to take Mary and Jesus and go to Egypt, he had faith that they would be protected there. He had faith that what God was doing was an important plan, and Joseph had faith that God would accomplish it.