In a day where fear and anxiety reign; where conditions are passed off as heredity, I look back at all that surrounded Jesus' birth and notice all the places where fear could have dwelt.
Joseph had the weight of pregnant Mary, his virgin wife, the God-mother about to break open, and yet he could find no room for Him on earth's dwelling-grounds.
Who would house a Prince dressed in a humble womb?
A manger.
A feeding trough.
Excrement surrounded the Savior of the world, and there was one man who held to the promise his wife swore to be true.
A man of honor--loyal to the law of the land--Joseph was duty-bound to register his family, and so they traveled to an unfamiliar place, and found an unfamiliar room in which to deliver their child.
Looking down at his new son...this child who somehow owned the whole world...Joseph couldn't imagine how he would be able to feed Him through His infancy alone.
"How will I take care of Him? How will I support His mother? Will I find work among the gossips who dwell on His illegitimate birth? Will my family always run from kings as my son establishes His kingdom on the earth? And will I be enough for Him? Will I be able to teach this son anything? Will my son ever need me?"
There were questions long ago, because one man took an ordinary girl to a city far away.
They were alone.
They were poor.
They had no gift to welcome His arrival, and no family standing by to take first pictures.
But what they had was far greater than any fear, because they had the One their people had been waiting for; Messiah-born.
Amid the danger and rage of a jealous king, God Himself cried in a mother's arms, and Joseph sighed deep beneath the heavens.
Peace had come into the world, and He had chosen to settle in one man's home.
What expression would Joseph wear on the face that would one day be taken in memory to all eternity?
What legacy would he leave for the young man who would be called the carpenter's son?
Would he pass down the fear that wrapped itself around all of the uncertain's? Or would this man wear the joy that needs no circumstance to alter its repose?
A virgin birth.
A humble dwelling.
An angry king.
A tiny child.
And one man...whose choice to love and just believe would make a home for the Savior of the world.
