Joseph (Not That One)

You know not enough is said about Joseph in the Bible. I’m talking about Joseph, Mary’s husband, Jesus dad here on earth. Put yourself in this guy’s shoes for a second. The woman you love, who you are engaged to, who you have never had sex with, all of a sudden gets pregnant. Her excuse, an angel of the Lord came and the Holy Spirit caused her to become pregnant! And that’s not all folks, the baby is the son of God and he will reign over the house of David forever. I don’t care who you are, that’s a lot to swallow!

Okay now if I were Joseph, I would have probably been heart broken that Mary cheated on me and would have ended that relationship. Some nasty words would probably would have been said and I would have went on my way. I think many other guys would have done the same thing. But Joseph was special. He probably had a very personal relationship with God, so something like this wasn’t inconceivable for him. Perhaps God spoke to him as well, I don’t know. (Actually I looked it up and an angel appeared to him as well)

Fast forward 12 years. Jesus is now beginning to show signs that he is no ordinary child. He is stealing away to the synagogues to school the rabbis and quoting scripture, wowing everybody. How does a man deal with the fact that his son, whose diapers he changed for years is not really his son, but God’s? That you really don’t have any ownership of him and when he has to leave and do God’s work you really have no say. Maybe this is the model for all fathers. That I don’t have any real ownership of my son Christian. He belongs to God as everything else I possess does. I am just entrusted to take care of him until he is old enough to discern what God has entailed for him in his own life. Maybe every father eventually has to go through what Joseph had to go through. Okay I digress from my original point.

Joseph, Mary’s husband I believe is overshadowed by the Joseph in the Old Testament (although he is awesome too). When people name their kids Joseph, it’s probably not after Jesus’ dad. But I think that Joseph was a great man, who had a lot of faith and I don’t think he gets the credit he deserves.