Joseph
Joseph the Carpenter had waited. He had waited to marry Mary. Although she was young, Joseph saw that Mary was good and kind and true, and he loved her. So he waited until she was older. They became engaged. And Joseph was very happy.
Then Joseph heard something that made him unhappy. Mary was going to have a baby, but the baby was not Joseph’s. Joseph was very sad. He knew this meant he could not marry Mary. He had waited for so long for no reason. Because he still loved Mary, though, he decided not to tell other people why he would not marry her. He did not want them to hurt her.
That night Joseph had a dream. He dreamt of a beautiful man, a man with hair like the sun, eyes like flames, and skin like snow, a man so amazingly beautiful that Joseph was scared. The man was an angel, a messenger of God.
The angel told Joseph that Mary was good and kind and true, even more than Joseph knew. So good and true was Mary that God Himself had come to her and given her the baby. The baby would grow up and do something wonderful for people. Something that God had long promised would happen. But in the meantime, Mary and the baby—whom, the angel said, should be named Jesus—would need someone to take care of them, and God knew that Joseph was the person to do this.
When Joseph woke up, he listened to what the angel had told him. He married Mary. A few months later, even though Mary was very pregnant, Joseph and Mary left Nazareth and traveled to the town of Bethlehem so that the government would count them as husband and wife.
Joseph was still not sure what was going on and he didn’t see any glory in it. But he knew he loved Mary and he loved God. And he had never really cared much about glory. So he waited.
