Joseph was a person who played a silent, but a pivotal role in the birth of Jesus Christ. When Mary had a personal encounter with an angel from Heaven who came to give her a direct message from God, Joseph was totally unaware of what was yet to unfold in their future. He did not receive any counsel from the Lord and was totally blindfolded until the startling reality hit him. Without a strand of doubt, we can ascertain that he was a great man, a husband, a father and a human whom the Heavenly Father could trust and give His great promise into his hand. Simply, it means that God could trust Joseph so much that He could assign him the position of a “father” on the earth. Here are some super qualities that we can learn from the life and character of Joseph.
Joseph- A man who does not doubt on God’s word
Let us ponder over the scenario where Joseph was stepping into the eternal plan of God. He was engaged to Mary and he was bubbling with the joy and excitement of his prospective life with her. As any normal man, he would definitely have his own dreams, expectations and excitement about his impending marriage. His mind would be exuberantly filled with the thoughts about his future bride and his heart would be bursting with irrepressible love for the person who was going to share his life for the rest of his days. His family and friends must be looking up to him with great joy and honor as he was the most significant person among them now. The whole ambience of his household would be scurrying with preparations for the highly expected wedding. Everyone in the family would be busy preparing to fulfill their role in the blessed ceremony. Joseph and his family would be vibrant and sparkling up. However, just when every corner of Joseph’s heart was leaping with the joy of receiving Mary into his life, there came the biggest, saddest and the most shocking news of his life which broke him into pieces. The woman he loved the most and with whom his many dreams and expectations spun around was carrying someone’s baby in her womb. Such news was not something anyone would ever want to hear or would ever expect before a wedding. Possibly, he did not believe it in an instant as he heard it from Mary. Amidst all the expectations of a jubilant marriage to his sweetheart, he did not want to believe that his prospective bride, his soul-mate is going to give birth to someone’s child after his much awaited marriage to her. Neither did he want to take the responsibility of a child that does not even belong to him especially in his culture. Though we cannot exactly comprehend what Joseph went through, we are pretty sure that there was a discord that erupted almost immediately in their relationship with respect to Mary’s faithfulness to him. He must have felt like being bamboozled by a woman being so dishonest and adulterous like Mary whom he counted on so much. It was all in shambles now, his dreams, expectations, trust and more than anything the joy of oneness was being shattered. Whatever he was basking on turned into a bunch of fragments. He must have surely interrogated Mary and probably her response would have prompted him to go broken. Her response sounded so stupid and absurd to him that she got conceived without knowing a man as it is something that has never happened before and it sounds impossible. I believe, Mary might have argued till she reached a point of exhaustion to prove her innocence. However, Joseph couldn’t reason with her any more. Well, as for Joseph, his future with Mary looked too bleak now which was in stark contrast to what he nestled up in his heart before. As Mary and Joseph reached a point to where they could not stay in unison anymore, Joseph decided to call off the wedding. He decided to do it very graciously and discreetly by protecting Mary’s dignity and identity. He loved Mary so much that he did not want to tarnish her reputation in the society by exposing her guilt to the public.
Remember that God wouldn’t ever forsake Mary by leaving her in such a poignant, vulnerable situation. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and gave him the message about the unusual pregnancy of Mary from the Holy Spirit. The angel cautioned him of his secret plan of discarding Mary. Further, the angel reinforced it by (quoting the word of God)stating that the evidence of such a thing as this is the word itself, which is the biggest truth and the evidence of it stays in and for itself. The baby is the evidence of my promise and the promise is the evidence for the baby. In conclusion, both are same. The ‘word’ that was once written was now in Mary’s womb and the ‘word’ that she has just heard and accepted is what she is carrying now. The word that you are listening to now is what she feels in her womb as form of a Baby. The word that you are listening to now is already heard of by her. The moment she accepted the word, that became a part of her. Now Joseph wasn’t afraid to accept Mary as the same word that she is carrying is what he listened to. In One word the one who is there in the womb is now talking to you in the form of word. The very impeccable moment that Mary chose to say yes to the word, she received it in her womb and the moment Joseph said yes to it, he received that in his heart. Now, she was carrying the baby in the womb without knowing a man and he is carrying the baby in his heart without any rational thoughts of his own. Now, Joseph was able to accept Mary wholeheartedly back into his life as he believed undoubtedly in the word. If the unflinching faith of Mary was enough to spring forth a baby in her womb, the gritty faith that Joseph possessed was enough to bring Mary and the baby in his life. He was so determined in accepting the word of the Lord beyond everything.
The word of God has Life and is life. It has the power to create things where there is no possibility. She carried the word in her womb and he carried the word in his heart both had to wait for the appointed day to see it with their physical eyes. Most of the time we neglect the word by counting less value and less power compared with the information, knowledge, experience we possess. But the truth stands still and it has the power to create new things which no one ever heard and no heart could ever imagine. Let us believe the word as it is and accept, acknowledge and take care of it until we see it with our eyes
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