Joseph's Story

It was absolutely perfect.

I mean, after all the hours, it was perfect.

I had spent days and nights sleepless at times in my dad's shop.

And I wanted to get it just right.

Sawing, sanding, staining.

And when I finally stepped away, I looked at it and it was just right.

I think I had built the best crib ever on the planet.

And with it, I was going to ask her to marry me.

And you may be saying, okay, a crib.

That's kind of an odd engagement present.

But you don't understand.

When you're a carpenter, you do things a little differently.

See, this was my way to tell her, I'm ready.

I'm ready to start a family.

I'm ready to fall in love.

I'm ready to spend a lifetime filling this crib with you.

I had it all worked out.

I took her on a date and had some of my buddies go and take the crib, put it on her back porch.

We went for a walk down by the lake and fed the ducks.

It was cute.

And when I walked her back to her dad's house and brought her up to the back porch, and there was the crib with a big bow on it.

She was confused at first.

But I said, Will you spend the rest of your life with me?

Can we make a family together?

It was the happiest time.

The next couple of weeks were amazing.

It was a blur.

We spent time prepping and planning, and you know, everything seemed to be set in motion.

My dad, he was gonna give me a shop after years of apprenticing.

He said I was ready to run it on my own.

Laughed, I told him I'd still give him a job.

But because he was giving me this opportunity, I was finally gonna be making enough money to get my own place.

Had my eyes on this apartment across town, it was gonna be perfect.

Two bedroom to start, but hey, room for us and room for the crib.

I couldn't have imagined a more perfect scenario.

And then she came.

She came to my house one night.

She said, Joe, we gotta talk.

Okay.

What is it?

With tears in her eyes, she looked at me and she said, Joe, I'm gonna have a baby.

What?

A baby.

In one moment everything I ever wanted fell apart.

I had all these plans.

I love her.

Oh, she tried to explain it.

Oh, an angel told me, whatever.

We all know there's only one way a baby's made.

I was angry, I was hurt, I couldn't think.

I walked out of there and I didn't know what to do.

Down by the lake, I'm praying, I'm screaming, I'm crying, I don't everything, everything just changed.

I got together with my buddies and told them how angry I was, and but I but I needed help.

What do I do?

I asked my dad.

I said, I love her, Dad.

I still love her.

I have good friends.

A good father.

And by the end of the night, they'd helped me sort some things out, and I realized what I needed to do.

The next morning I was gonna go down to the courthouse, get the paperwork drawn up, and get put an end to this marriage.

But I was gonna do it as quietly as possible.

See, the truth is I didn't want her embarrassed around town.

I didn't want her shamed.

I still loved her.

I went to bed that night, sure, the next morning, my first visit was gonna be to the courthouse.

But in the middle of the night, I had this dream.

I mean, you ever have a dream that's so vivid that you could swear it's real?

Well, it was like that, but way more intense.

And all of sudden, there's an angel talking to me.

And I was afraid.

I mean, first my life falls apart, and now this creature visits me in all this magnificence and glory, and I am scared to death.

And he says, Don't be afraid, Joseph.

And all of a sudden I felt peace.

And he says, The child, the child inside Mary is from the Most High.

And you will have him as your son, and you will name him Jesus.

And he talked about the prophecy of old that the Messiah would come.

And we would call him Emanuel, Imanuel, God with us.

And you know what the first thing I thought was?

She still loves me.

I know I'm supposed to think more spiritual things in that moment, but I didn't.

All I could think is she was telling the truth.

And then I thought, oh my gosh.

This is the one.

The one.

Messiah, Emmanuel.

The one that was promised to Abraham and David.

That we've been waiting for.

It's just him.

My day went from good to worse to scary to better.

To unbelievable.

And I didn't know what to do with myself.

I ran the next morning and I went to Mary and I said, I know, I know, I know what you go.

And then we could barely talk, but it was a lot of like that.

And we're so excited.

And she said, Did he tell you?

I said, Yes, he did.

And do you understand?

Yes, I do.

And do you are we still gonna do it?

Yeah, we're gonna do this.

And there were so many plans again to make.

There were so many plans again to make.

And she said, okay, listen, here's what I'm gonna do.

I'm gonna go visit my relative.

Get out of town for a little bit because people talk, right?

And I stayed behind and I got the apartment, and I started setting up the room, and I got that crib.

I didn't think I'd need it this soon.

And I put it in the room.

And during her months with her relatives, I started building all the furniture to go around that crib, but it was a centerpiece.

I thought when she gets back, when she gets back, it's gonna be awesome.

And she was gonna come back just in time to have the baby.

But then we got a letter from the government.

Well, they mess some stuff up, don't they?

And they said, hey, guess what?

Time for everybody to get counted.

Go back to where your parents are from, and you gotta go.

And so we had to go travel to Bethlehem.

I'm like, Bethlehem, are you kidding me?

So right as she's getting home, we have this letter saying that we've got to take this 80-mile journey on foot to Bethlehem so we can go take part in this census.

Come on.

With all the technological advances, I have to walk 80 miles?

So we pack it up.

I don't know about you.

Have you ever walked 80 miles with a donkey and a woman that's nine months pregnant?

It's not fun.

At all.

We roll into town and all I want to do is check into the Romana, put my feet up by the pool, get one of those little drinks with an umbrella, right?

But wouldn't you know it?

Everybody else got the same letter.

And when you don't have a pregnant woman, apparently you walk faster.

So there's no rooms left for us.

This little guy, I know a roof.

Okay, we need something.

And he takes us around and oh.

We're in a stall with the animals.

But hey, there's a roof overhead.

So I start rolling out the bedroll, and I start trying to make a place for Mary.

And also, get this.

Joe, it's time.

What?

We are in a barn.

So we start making preps, and I start kind of gets me some clean water.

We start trying to clean the straw.

Have you ever tried to clean straw?

Doesn't work.

So we're starting to try to clear a place, and we're like, there's gonna be a baby, and we're gonna need a spot to put them, and we got and I think back to that crib, and I go, I wish I had that crib.

It was perfect.

My kid's about to be born with the smell of manure.

And I have the world's greatest crib sitting at home 80 miles away.

And all we can do is clean out a feeding trough and put down some blankets so he doesn't get splinters.

It's a whirlwind from there, and I'll tell you, I think I blacked out a couple of times.

Don't tell the other guys, okay?

But I it was it's scary, and it's kind of intimidating.

And here we are, and he shows up, and I hold him in my arms, and everything's changed.

And I look at this baby, and I think back to that angel's visit.

She'll call him Jesus.

He will save his people.

And I take this perfect child and I stick him in his less than perfect crib.

And I hit my knees and I just prayed, God, thank you for what you've done.

And I thought of Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah, who talked about my little child all those years ago, and I had no idea what this would look like when I was sitting in church, and the rabbi said that Isaiah had this verse.

That he would come to set the captives free.

When it said he would come to set the captives free, I thought they got that wrong because I pictured him walking in a room.

I thought we should go back and change that and say, he will be born to set the captives free.

And then it dawned on me.

My child came to set me free.

Me.

All I could think is that my plans had gotten destroyed.

That moment I vowed.

To let him make the plans from now on.

And I realized I was free.

I no longer had to worry about my own life.

That's how I could turn myself over.

It was the greatest thing I'd ever say.

Until I got older, but that's another story.

I've taken too much of your time.

Thanks for listening.

You'll have a great day.