Advent: Joseph

This Advent I want to take a closer, and perhaps imaginative look, at four characters from the Christmas story.

Am I enough?

As a foster-father I have been tasked with raising another person's child, but I still can't imagine being Joseph.  Sadly, the fathers I am asked to step in for are not ideal fathers.  I'm keenly aware that I can't be the same as any child's biological father except my own, but I have never been kept awake at night wondering if I'm as good a father as one of my foster-kid's biological fathers.  

Joseph must have had many sleepless nights wondering if he could ever be close to enough because his son's father was the Father of Lights.  Joseph made chairs, Jesus' real Father made galaxies.  Joseph put food on the table, Jesus' real Father put air in the lungs of all living things.  Joseph was poor enough to need to sacrifice birds instead of a lamb (Leviticus 5:7, Luke 2:24), Jesus' Father owned the cattle on a thousand hills (Psalm 50:10).

I think most men struggle with the question: Am I enough?

Joseph is a man like I am and I can only imagine he asked himself this question, prayed this question and cried this question to Mary who echoed the same question while also trying to reassure her dear husband that he was indeed enough for her and the Word of life.

God chose Joseph to be the earthly father to His only begotten Son.  Now, God didn't choose him because he was perfect or because of his immense worth.  God has yet to choose a person because they were great, but rather because He is great in and through them.

But let's look at what good thing we can see in Joseph.

He was an ordinary, righteous man with extraordinary obedience.

Joseph was a righteous man and when he found out that Mary was pregnant he decided to not shame her, but to end their engagement quietly.  He could have had her killed for cheating, but he didn't. Then when the angel told him the truth about the origins of this baby, Joseph embraced the shame he didn't want to give Mary.  Joseph was obedient from the moment he woke from his dreamy encounter with the angel.  

Later, when Joseph was told in another dream to take his new wife and son and flee, he did.  Joseph accepted the life a foreigner and outsider until another dream prompted him to return and restart his life in Nazareth.  As we read the first few chapters of Matthew we see Joseph doing nothing but listening and obeying.

Joseph should give great hope to all men (and women) who wonder if they are enough.  The life of Joseph is not given much glitz and glamor.  As I read about Joseph and imagine his life I'm struck by the value of the ordinary people with extraordinary obedience who strive to live a righteous life.  Joseph never found fame or fortune but this ordinary man's righteousness and obedience sent shockwaves of saving glory through time and space.  

If you are willing to obey God and strive for righteousness, you are enough.

This Advent think about the forgotten character Joseph and what we might find in this seemingly ordinary man who was thrust into an altogether, cosmically wild situation.  See the value of ordinary, righteous living today.