As is traditional for us all I suppose, this time of year we find ourselves 
focusing in on the story surrounding the birth of Jesus. I can't help but 
picture Linus standing in the spotlight with blanket in hand telling 
Charlie Brown the meaning of Christmas as he recites the passages from the 
Gospel of Luke. And ending his recital with "That's what Christmas is all 
about Charlie Brown". We'd be hard pressed to find a modern cartoon 
proclaiming such these days.  Of course the whole story is the target of 
the beginning of our redemption to sin, the birth of our redeemer, our 
savior, a pivotal moment in the history of man in which not only all will 
look back on as a point of salvation but also a story which was foretold 
hundreds of years prior to which so many prophesies were fulfilled it is 
utterly impossible for Jesus not to have been our messiah, our savior. 
However, a songwriting friend of mine and I were swapping a couple 
Christmas songs back and forth we were penning or had penned and he, not an 
outward believer, if a believer at all, and probably neutral to the gospel 
at this point, nonetheless very moral and all that, did remind me of 
another point in the story which I've thought of before but perhaps not 
with as much revelation. He had penned a song from the perspective of 
Joseph. To tell the truth I can't recall the lines of the song but the 
perspective is one that is an interesting one nonetheless. My comments, or 
ramblings, are obviously skewed by the contemporary life we lead today and 
minus the traditions and cultural views shared by the people around the 
time of Christ's birth. With that disclaimer, you can read knowing I 
probably am somewhat off base with how he, being Joseph, may have thought, 
and yet he is a human being emotionally driven and protective of the one he 
loves. Nonetheless there are good points to be garnered from looking back 
in the eyes of our modern ways. If any of you men are married, or if not 
married perhaps dating someone, or if you have dated in the past, you might 
imagine the thoughts that might run through your mind when your girlfriend 
or fiance announces to you she is pregnant. What would be our natural human 
reaction? Maybe something like, "What! Who is he? I'll kill him!" Right 
away we might assume unfaithfulness. How would we react to her? Anger? 
Livid? Heartbroken? Stomp and toss things in an immature fit? Sit quiet 
over a cup of coffee cooled by a few  tears rolling off the face into the 
cup unsure of what this all means?  All sort of questions as to who looked 
at her with admiration in the last months and her being a little to nice in 
return? Where could this have happened, When could it have happened? With 
who? What now? Why? Why, why why? As men, or perhaps certain types of 
personalities, I think we try to find the fixes to things immediately upon 
hearing them, and this was a hard fix. I mean women are impregnated only 
one way right? Well until once in history that is and that once in history 
hadn't happened yet in Joseph's life and would never again happen after, so 
to base any reason on such would not be probable or even possible because 
who would have even thought it. We have prophecies of such, but who of us 
would think that the hundreds of years of prophecy would fall upon you and 
your girl? Imagine the faith and trust it took for him to come to grips 
with it and in fact he probably didn't come to grips with it very well at 
the time because scripture says…

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been 
betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with 
child by the Holy Spirit. And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and 
not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. But when he 
had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a 
dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your 
wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit." 
She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save 
His people from their sins." Now all this took place to fulfill what was 
spoken by the Lord through the prophet: "BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH 
CHILD AND SHALL BEAR A SON, AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL," which 
translated means, "GOD WITH US." And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as 
the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife.

Imagine how Joseph's life must have changed? One day he was likely a 
tradesman apprentice engaged to a wonderful girl and planning a nice life 
together, maybe a modest little home, nice job doing what he enjoyed, start 
a little family and live quietly among his people, and the next day his 
girl tells him she's pregnant. Even with that bombshell of an announcement, 
he still had her, and no doubt his own neck in mind when he planned to 
stash her away someplace to have this child which he knew wasn't his to 
begin with. How many today would say… "OK girl. I'm out of here. You did 
the deed, now you raise the seed!" And yet he did in fact think of her yet 
disturbed about it all to a point an angel came to him and straighten him 
out. Imagine that? When's the last time God sent an arc angel to you for a 
personal message from the creator of the world?  God implements a plan for 
him to go to Bethlehem to fulfill the prophecy of Christ's birthplace and 
plants the seed of a registration of people and word spread for folks to 
return to their household place to register in a census. Remember now this 
was word of mouth too. There weren't no internet, newspaper deliveries, 
phones, pagers, or walkie talkies. Once they were there and Jesus was born 
there, God tells him to flee to Egypt because some king is after the boy to 
kill him. Once there Joseph is again told to head to Nazareth because the 
folks who wanted the boy dead are dead themselves and again to fulfill 
prophecy they are to return to Nazareth. Imagine the field trip Joseph was 
on, the level of faith in knowing that what he dreamed was of God, and not 
the ill affects of a bad lentil in the soup the night before. Imagine the 
mission Joseph was appointed to. Hauling his family across the country at 
the direction of angels and dreams and then take on the task of raising up 
the messiah of the world. I wonder if I were engaged to Mary then if I'd 
have had the integrity and faith to carry out the mission set before me? 
And then again maybe that too took part in why it took so many years for 
prophecy to occur? To find a faithful and godly woman, a man who would not 
disgrace  or abandon her or leave her, as well all the other items which 
fell into place at that time, if would have been set in place any other 
time, would not have fulfilled what was foretold. It is humbling when we 
look at the timelines and the fulfillment  of all that occurred and then 
look at where are we in the scheme of the big plan? What are we called to 
do? Be a super evangelist, or live quiet Christian lives serving as 
integretous examples to others as best we can and yet serve as examples of 
sinners justified daily. Wouldn't it be nice if we could be so directed by 
angels and dreams to point us in the way we ought go?

Or can we?

Brad