Joseph

In all the rush and haste of the Christmas season, one name and one name alone stands over in the corner aside from everything else. A forgotten man.....A man of great character.....

A man named Joseph.....

Earthly father of Jesus.

We have a tendency to focus on Mary and the wonderful gift that she gave God. A body in which to come and live among his creation. A body that would become the payment for the sin of the world.

She gave her reputation, her future, her very self to God in order for the Holy Spirit to conceive a baby within her womb.

But always near by was Joseph.

He wanted to put her away upon learning of the pregnancy. Put her away is a polite term for ending the marriage arrangement. He would do so according to the law because.....that was just who Joseph was. A man of integrity and of his word. And in the society of his day,he would have been justified to do so.

But God considered such a move on Joseph's part and sent an angel to warn him in a dream that everything that was happening was because God had deemed it to. It was all part of God's plan.

Don't you think that Joseph may have wished that the real events he found himself caught up in were a dream?

They weren't...
They were real....
They were a part of his life.

Joseph took Mary with him to Bethlehem.

Searching for a place for them to stay, finding none, he settled for a stall. Not really the kind of place you'd want for your wife,who was expecting, to deliever your first born. But then again, beauty and splendor are sometimes seen in the unseen.

No help was there for Joseph...
He became midwife and caretaker to Mary....

Isn't that the heart of what God expects of all us?
To be a servant? I think maybe "YES".

Joseph delivered the baby into Mary's arms.

He took care of the needs of his wife and his adopted son.

I think, as Jesus grew that  he developed a love for Joseph. Here was a man who was unselfish and went about the business of husband and father with much love and integrity.

Joseph....he is a forgotten man.

But doesn't the Bible say something about the last shall be first?
Joseph took the lower place in this great plan that was played out in the midst of harshest times.

Joseph sought no honor for himself.

We don't read much of Joseph after Jesus' twelfth birthday.
As unannounced as his entry into Scripture, so was his departure.

He took on the task given to him and he saw it to completion.
I think we need more men like Joseph.

Men and women of great character. Such as these provide the human foundation upon which Christ builds His church.

Merry Christmas

mb