Available And Faithful!
"Then Joseph her husband, being a just man,
and not wanting to make Mary a public example,
was minded to put her away secretly."
Matthew 1: 19
Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus, continued a tradition
of God using ordinary people to do extraordinary things.
Joseph was a carpenter in Nazareth and was
part of the
Davidic ancestral line.
We also know he was a “just” and righteous man. Though
we know little of his life after the birth of Jesus (Luke 2:41),
it appears he may have been alive at the beginning of
Jesus’ ministry (Matthew 13:55) but died by the
time
of the crucifixion (John 19:26-27).
Consider what Joseph went through when he discovered
Mary was pregnant before they were married! His impulse
was to do what was best for Mary by saving her from public
humiliation. Then when he discovered that her Child
was
of God, he married her and established a family in which
the Child would be loved and nurtured.
He taught Jesus the skill of carpentry (Mark 6:3) and
apparently raised Him “in the training and admonition
of the Lord” (Luke 2:41-52; Ephesians
6:4).
We don’t need to be famous to be used
by God. Like Joseph, we only need to
be available and faithful.
"It is better to be faithful than famous."
Theodore Roosevelt
