Joseph

I was asked to give a little talk to our Bible Study about Christmas. Here are the thoughts that I shared that day.

Besides Christ, one of my favorite characters in the Christmas narrative is Joseph. He often gets overlooked as there as very little mentioned about him in the story. Yes, scripture does offer us a few descriptions.
1. He was a righteous man. Of course he was. He was betrothed to Mary and she was most certainly a righteous woman--the mother of Christ had to be. If Mary's folks thought that Joseph was a worthy husband--he must have been pretty special.
2. He was going to divorce her quietly. He could have stoned her if he wanted. He could have stood in the city gates and maligned her. She obviously cheated on him and got pregnant. His named was dragged through the mud. In a day and age where the news is filled with folks divorcing each other, putting out tweets and giving interviews, Joseph takes the high road. Mary is pregnant. He'll take care of things quietly. He must have really liked her to want to protect her as well as to not take any kind of revenge on her.
3. He had a dream where an angel talked with him and he went to Mary "when he woke up". Right away! He took on these issues. He took on all the judgement and comments of the folks in Nazareth. He didn't ask God to talk to him again. He didn't say "this was just a dream so I don't have to do anything.". Boy do I like this guy. I can't say that I would have reacting like that.
4. He was willing to be an adoptive parent to the Son of God! Think about that. He was going to parent the SON OF GOD. Someone who was perfect. An imperfect parent parenting a perfect child. Yet, Joseph did it. He taught him how to do carpentry, how to behave in synagogue, how to tie his robe the right way, how to wash his feet and behind his ears, how to eat a variety of foods. . . he did it.
5. He didn't have sex with Mary until after Jesus was born. I'm amazed at Joseph's self-control. Though they were married, he wanted to make sure that Jesus was born of the virgin Mary. To get married and then wait. . . what a guy!

We don't hear much more about him--they go to Egypt and return. What we do hear is amazing though. Way to go Joseph!