“Blessed Joseph,
Your heart is proven,
And through you the Kingdom has come
For God delights in a man of mercy,
And has found an earthly father for His Son.”
Jason Gray, “Forgiveness Is A Miracle”
"He's that man who couldn't hold onto his woman."
"I can't believe he stayed with her after what she did to him."
"No, no. He knocked her up. Some godly man he turned out to be."
Joseph often gets lost in the story. We think and ponder a lot about the situation Mary found herself in, and for good reason. But Joseph was there, too, and Joseph had a whole set of challenges that he had to overcome as well.
When you think about Mary and Joseph, you have to consider this: Perceptions are everything. Who could Joseph tell that his Son was adopted from the Lord? Who would believe him if he did?
Would you believe it?
There are only two possibilities as far as anyone else would have been concerned: that he either got his young fiancee pregnant before they were married, or that she stepped out on him. In staying with her, Joseph ran the risk of looking like a fool for staying with a woman who he couldn’t control and raising her illegitimate son.
To everyone on the outside looking in, Joseph was a sucker.
Of course, he had an out. He could have publicly disavowed her. People would have understood, and Mary would not be believed even if she tried to protest. He even considered breaking it off quietly, at least to save her some dignity, but still leaving her to fend for herself in a time and place where she would absolutely be thrown to the fringes.
But he doesn’t even do that. Why?
Yes, Joseph trusts in the Lord. He has faith. And yes, Joseph must have had the sense that something good would come of this strange turn of events. He has hope. But beneath all of his faith that the Lord would deliver on a promise and all of his hope that things would be okay, there was something else.
He loves her.
Love—not romance, not attraction, not lust, but real love—is something that forgets itself for the sake of another. It looks at all the reasons why you should give up on someone or something, and says, “I will stay, I will do this, and I will fight for it.”
It’s no wonder God chooses Joseph.
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