Emmanuel with Joseph

Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid… Matthew 1:20

I’ve never really taken the time to take Joseph’s perspective. He’s a grown man whose teenage wife-to-be is scandalously pregnant. To make things worse, she’s saying God got her pregnant. In his “kindness”, he plans to divorce her quietly rather than making a big deal in their tiny village of Nazareth. (Not sure small-town life is ever quietly done…pretty sure all would know and talk anyway). Joseph must be hurt, upset and think Mary has gone CRA-zy! Then the angel appears to him in a dream to tell him not to be afraid of joining his life with Mary's and that the baby is indeed from God. When he wakes up, Joseph is a changed man. I wonder how his view of Mary changed in that moment, from loose lunatic to chosen mother of God’s own Son. I bet he is in awe of her position and respects her more for it. He instantly, courageously obeys the angel’s message, takes Mary to be his wife, no more doubts. He accepts this new shared adventure with Mary. He submits to the interruption of God in their life plans. Up until this point, I imagine he had a life path laid out before them in Nazareth…carpentry, small village life, kids, family, obscurity. In the blink of an eye that cozy plan is upended and they spend the next years running from murderous kings, hiding out in Egypt, and finally years later back to their home town where few would believe their story. Joseph becomes Jesus’s earthly protector. From here on out he follows each call of the angel in his dreams. I want to be more like Joseph, able to flex when God interrupts my plans and rise to the challenge of whatever He calls me to because he is with me as he was with Joseph.
 
Thank you, Emmanuel, for your presence with Joseph, for appearing to him just how he needed and changing his heart. Thank you for meeting us where we are as well. We pray that you’d help us to be more like Joseph today, to allow your life interruptions to mold us into your people. Oh, Father, help us to trust you even when we don’t understand all the details that lay before us.