Guest Author Grace Thomas
When Mary came back from her visit with Elizabeth, Nazareth was soon met with the news of her pregnancy… So was Joseph. Put yourself in Joseph’s shoes: Your recently engaged fiancé comes back from a long journey and is suddenly pregnant. In a normal person’s mind, there’s one thing that could have happened. She was being unfaithful. Ok, you can go back to being your normal self now. Joseph, being the gentleman that he was, decided he would just call off the engagement quietly so as not to embarrass Mary. Needless to say the engagement didn’t end because of Divine Intervention.
Then, after they were married, a census was declared. Just what Joseph needed. Another problem in the short 9 months they were engaged and knew each other. What struck me about Joseph in this part of their journey, was the fact that he walked the entire way to Bethlehem. In The Nativity Story, his feet got blistered, and he hardly ate at all (he saved a lot of his food for Mary and their donkey). This was amazing to me, because if I were him, I wouldn’t have given most of my food to the donkey after giving over half of it to Mary.
Later, after they got to Bethlehem, the whole “There’s no room at the Inn” story begins. Once again, in the movie, Joseph ties up their donkey, and carries Marry all through Bethlehem. A lot of people would say “Oh, that’s adorable, he carried her while he was trying to find a place to stay!” But wait, there’s more. Mary was going into labor while they were trying to find a house. Imagine looking out the window in one of the houses: A man running around trying to find a place to stay, and the woman he is carrying is obviously pregnant and about have her baby.
This next part is what really got me. Mary gives birth to Jesus in the stable, right? Guess who has to help her. Joseph. When Elizabeth gives birth to John the Baptist, it was all women in the room. Zechariah got to sit in an adjacent room and wait until Elizabeth was presentable. Joseph got to help Mary give birth to Jesus. He didn’t get to go sit in a separate room. He was right there in the midst of everything. I guess that’s not every man’s dream, but it added to my utmost respect for Joseph.
So many other things happened in Joseph’s lifetime that make you really respect him. I told you to bear with me, and now you’ll finally understand. God continually threw so many obstacles at the Holy Family. Joseph, being the head of the family, had to take on all of those obstacles. What I really love about Joseph is the fact that he never once complained, but embraced the fact that being the foster father of the Son of God takes some responsibility, and wouldn’t be easy. I think that through this holiday season, and into the New Year, we should try to be accepting, obedient, and put God first in our lives. We need to base our actions upon Joseph’s and make choices that help us become more like the man God chose to father His Son on earth.
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