Joseph has to be one of the most intriguing characters in the Christmas saga. Very little is known about the man. We know his lineage, his wife, and his children. We know his occupation. There is very little in Scripture said about him beyond the early chapters of the Gospels. Mary crops up here and there, Jesus' brothers are around, but Daddy isn't.
Yo, Joe ... where are you?
I've heard some speculate that he wasn't really a key player in the big picture. I don't buy into that theory at all.
Surely God, our Father, would not pick just any man to father His own child during His time on earth. I just don't believe that could happen. No, I think Joe was a man of integrity. In fact, I can say that with a fair amount of certainty because of how quickly he changed his own plans to align them with God.
Joe was no fool; he recognized that Mary wasn't the ideal virginal wife when she showed up to tell him she was pregnant. And yet, it speaks highly of both of their characters that he was willing to do what needed to be done without making a spectacle of her. He didn't care about opinions; he cared about the people. And when God spoke to him, he answered. He married a woman pregnant with a child not his own and gave his life to protect that child's and raise that child.
No matter that the child was the Christ. He still cried for milk in the middle of the night, still teethed, still asked incessant questions, still needed to have food and clothes provided for him, still needed to be taught a trade, still needed to have Scripture ingrained in His heart as directed by the sh'mah.
And Joe? He did that. He raised a young man to know the Scriptures so well that He held His own at a very early age with the religious leaders in the synagogue. He raised up a man who respected His mother and honored her request to miraculously turn water into wine even though it was not time yet. He raised up a man had the self discipline to fast in the desert and face the devil.
Yes, this child, this young man, was the Messiah. But He had within Him the potential to sin. If He didn't, He would not have been able to be tempted in every way. If He didn't, His presence on earth and His death would have been irrelevant.
So Joseph raised this boy into a man, fathering the Son of the Father. And He equipped Him, supported Him, loved Him so that He could fulfill the call of His Father in Heaven. Joe had to have been quite a man to be hand picked for that job.
Yo, Joe ... where are you?
I've heard some speculate that he wasn't really a key player in the big picture. I don't buy into that theory at all.
Surely God, our Father, would not pick just any man to father His own child during His time on earth. I just don't believe that could happen. No, I think Joe was a man of integrity. In fact, I can say that with a fair amount of certainty because of how quickly he changed his own plans to align them with God.
Joe was no fool; he recognized that Mary wasn't the ideal virginal wife when she showed up to tell him she was pregnant. And yet, it speaks highly of both of their characters that he was willing to do what needed to be done without making a spectacle of her. He didn't care about opinions; he cared about the people. And when God spoke to him, he answered. He married a woman pregnant with a child not his own and gave his life to protect that child's and raise that child.
No matter that the child was the Christ. He still cried for milk in the middle of the night, still teethed, still asked incessant questions, still needed to have food and clothes provided for him, still needed to be taught a trade, still needed to have Scripture ingrained in His heart as directed by the sh'mah.
And Joe? He did that. He raised a young man to know the Scriptures so well that He held His own at a very early age with the religious leaders in the synagogue. He raised up a man who respected His mother and honored her request to miraculously turn water into wine even though it was not time yet. He raised up a man had the self discipline to fast in the desert and face the devil.
Yes, this child, this young man, was the Messiah. But He had within Him the potential to sin. If He didn't, He would not have been able to be tempted in every way. If He didn't, His presence on earth and His death would have been irrelevant.
So Joseph raised this boy into a man, fathering the Son of the Father. And He equipped Him, supported Him, loved Him so that He could fulfill the call of His Father in Heaven. Joe had to have been quite a man to be hand picked for that job.
My hat is off to you, Joe. May dads everywhere follow your example and love children, regardless of genetics, with the love of the Father Himself so that this next generation becomes all that God has called it to be! May wives everywhere love their husbands and pray for the men in their families to step up to this calling. May we all love the children of this world with the unfettered grace that Joseph loved the Christ child.
25 Days of Christmas Series:
25 Days of Christmas: Home for the Holidays @ Graceful Abandon
25 Days of Easy Christmas Crafts for Toddlers & Preschoolers @ Sidetracked Sarah
25 Days of Christmas Traditions @ Sharing the Journey
25 Days of Simple Christmas @ Simply Living for Him
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