Rediscovering ChristmasSample

RELATIONAL INTENTIONALITY

At the center of the Christmas Story is the birth of a Child and, by consequence, the “birth” of new parents. In the previous devotional, we looked at Mary. Now let’s consider the lesser-noticed Joseph.

This young man was facing a difficult situation. “Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 1:18). Joseph thought his best move under these circumstances would be to quietly call off the engagement.

But then an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and told him not to be afraid.

What would Joseph be afraid of? Well, people, of course—namely, religious people. Socially speaking, he was about to enter a firestorm of gossip, slander, and judgment in the court of public opinion. The decision Joseph made to remain in the marriage was far more controversial than we can understand distanced by place and time.

Joseph was a man of humility and integrity. When he learned that Mary had not been unfaithful and that she car­ried in her womb the Savior of the world (see Matthew 1:21-23), he “woke up [and] did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife” (verse 24). That is what a father does. True fathers are humble and loyal.

So, why does any of this matter in regard to the Christ­mas Story?

We live in a world of shallow commitment, fluid loyalty, and inflated self-interest. In society today, men increasingly struggle to show up holistically in marriage and parenting. In these few passages that include Joseph, we learn that he was a man of deep humility, fierce loyalty, and self-sacrifice. Truly, his call in the story was as necessary as Mary’s.

Joseph wasn’t perfect. But my hunch is that God (whom Jesus called “Father”) found in Joseph a man who would become an Earthly father who provided glimpses of what our Perfect Heav­enly Father is like.

Ask yourself, How is God asking me to stick to my commitments and do my duty, even when it seems too hard?