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March 19, 2022It is so easy to “put Joseph on a pedestal with a lily in his hand.” Or reduce him to the phrase: “he was a righteous man.” But Joseph was a husband, a foster father, a human person.
Joseph, like many parents, had to live through very challenging crisis moments: a betrothed woman with a suspicious pregnancy, a necessary trek to fill out census papers when Mary was near to giving birth, a dangerous flight to Egypt, the 3-day “loss” of his 12-year-old. And who knows how many questions of mystery were raised during those growing up years of his foster Child. So, like the life of many parents!
Yes, perhaps it is time to sit down with the human Joseph and listen to the stories he carried in his heart, razor deep stories and questions, but always dressed in faith. He could hold on his knees the great treasure of his life and look straight into the eyes of the God whose sandals he probably fashioned himself, while at the same time wondering, “Can this really be true?” To repeat: “he was a righteous man.”
