Joseph’s dilemma

Hello, my name is Joseph. Things are going well at present. Lots to look forward to and no real worries. I’d got quite a profitable little business going and what’s more I’d got this very pretty girl friend called Mary. And even better her father has agreed that we can get married. So we are officially engaged.

Then to my horror she told me she was pregnant. What are her parents going to say? Will customers keep coming to the business? I think I had better cancel the engagement because she must have been with someone else when I was not looking. I had thought she was a nice girl, but how could she do this to me?

That night I could not get to sleep for worry. I kept turning over and thinking. At last I must have gone to sleep because I had a very vivid dream. This person was talking to me in the dream. He seemed to know all the things I had been thinking. He told me not to be afraid. Mary had not been with someone else but that something he called the “Holy Spirit” had made it happen. That was why she was pregnant. Then he went on to say that it would be a son and we have got to call him Jesus or something because he would save his people from their sins. Well, her being pregnant seemed something like sin to me, but the dream was very real and must mean something.

I was still a bit doubtful. Then Mary told me that she too had seen an angel like person who had told her that her pregnancy was “good news”. He had gone on about thrones and reigning and a permanent kingdom. He even said nothing was impossible with God. She was totally confused because she knew we had not done anything together to get her in that state, but the angel told her about her relative too so the message must have some truth. That old relative of mine, Zechariah, had had a vision of an angel who went and made him dumb for a while because he had not believed what he had been told. His old wife Elizabeth was going to have a baby at last. He said to us afterwards that it was so extraordinary that he thought he had been dreaming. So we went to see Elizabeth who seemed to know all about us without our saying anything. This was such a relief to Mary that she quoted Hannah’s song of praise and thanks when she found she was pregnant a thousand years before. Mary knew the old songs by heart although she did change some of the words.

Then disaster. We had been living up North and the government told us we had to go and register for a census in Bethleham. Now that was three day’s journey away and we did not know where we could stay when we got there. Still we had to go. My fears were quite right. No rooms anywhere. The best I could find was a sort of barn where they kept animals, but at least it was warm and dry. Then even more problems because we had thought we would only be there for a day or so, but you know what these bureaucrats are like and they kept us waiting for days.

Perhaps it was the effects of the journey or the accommodation or even bad food, but Mary started complaining about tummy ache. That really was the last thing we wanted because it might be the baby coming. It was. Panic. If I were a bit later I would have rung 999 or even 111 and got a midwife. But I did not know anyone here and there was no one to help. What midwife would allow a baby to be born in that messy place? Who knew anything about deliveries in a stable?

Well the baby came. It was a boy, so that bit was right. It was still pretty dark so we were working by just a single candle. It wasn’t half messy. We found some bits of cloth to wrap him in, but even they were none too clean. I had just got him feeding when a group of rough looking blokes came in. They said they were shepherds and I thought, good, if anyone knows about deliveries in the open, they do. Perhaps lambs are similar to humans. Relief, as they found some better bits of cloth to wrap him in. They knew where to find some clean hay for a bed and things began to look up. What really shook me was when things had quietened down a bit and they started talking. They too had seen angels or something who had told them exactly where to find us and, wonder of wonders, this baby was the Christ who we had been taught about at school.

Those shepherds were a real help. They went out and told lots of people about the angels and the baby. Soon we were offered a house to stay in until we had to take the baby up to the temple to obey the rules. So while waiting for the census and about a month after the birth we went the five miles up to the temple in the capital city. We could not afford the regulation lamb so made do with a couple of pigeons instead. Now imagine our surprise when an old bloke there grabbed the baby and started off praising God and even saying he “could now die peacefully as he had seen our baby who he said would save people”. Not to be outdone an old woman came over and said almost the same things. Now I was really confused. They had said wonderful things about our baby and that was nice, but we had no money to pay the rent and even buy food.

Now came one of those extraordinary things. We must have been in that house for several years for the census and getting the baby organised and worrying about money. Then one day there was a clattering outside and when I looked out there were some important looking people asking for us. They said a new star, a comet actually according to Chinese history, had appeared and had led them to the house so they knew where we were. They had been going for nearly two years. Money? They gave us gold as well as some precious spices which we could sell on for enormous profit. Another thing surprised me as they addressed the baby first and Mary and me afterwards as if the baby were more important than us. Where they had come from I do not know but it was certainly somewhere foreign. Now I thought I could really settle down except that night I had another dream. This was not a good one as it was a warning to emigrate.

Well, we had some money now and set off that very evening. We went South for several hundred miles until we came to a country where I thought I could find work and a house. We stayed there for quite some time. Then I had another one of those dreams and this one was much nicer. We could go back home. When we got there I heard that all the young children had been killed in the village where the baby had been born just after we left, so that was another dream that had worked out well for our baby but not for the village. We cried over that for a while. Was it no coincidence that the king man who ordered the killing himself died soon after?

With the capital those travellers had given us we were not too badly off now and the business was going quite well. The baby grew and was healthy and seemed very bright. Mary had more children now and I knew these were mine. Both James and Jude had a great love for their elder brother Jesus. Rules are rules and so we went up to the temple every year for the festival. Lots of us went from the village and the practice was for all the men to go first and women and young children to come on behind. Well, when Jesus was twelve I thought he was coming back with the women but Mary had thought he was with me, as twelve was the age he could come with the men. It was not till we had walked all day that we realised he was not with us. Panic again and a rush back. There we found him sitting with the official teachers, not just listening to them but asking them questions. And not only asking questions but answering as well. Even the teachers were amazed at his understanding. We quietly took him home and of course told him off for not coming with us. He just smiled and suggested that he had bigger things to do in his life. He even spoke about his “father’s business”. I can see now that was not carpentry or building because I knew I was not his father. He grew and became very popular in the area. He studied a lot and people said he was very wise. I was proud of my wife’s son. Looking back, those dreams had all come true. God was working in every detail of our lives. That first message from the angel to the wife had proved quite right when he had said that nothing was impossible with God.