Saturday, December 08, 2007

The Man Behind the Camera


Tomorrow morning, I'm continuing in the series called "The Nights Before Christmas" which is a look at the time, culture, and people that are all wrapped up in God's planned supernatural event - the Incarnation of Jesus.

We're a couple weeks away from Christmas, and I'll try my best to help everyone get enough of an idea about Joseph of Nazareth to understand who he was, why he did what he did, and how we all should emulate him.

He's been a difficult guy to get to know. Not much there in Scripture. I can describe what a typical Galilean Jewish man of that period would have been like. We can pretty confidently predict what his thoughts and actions would have been when faced with the earthshaking news he got from Mary.

But his time on the "stage" is so brief. And he has no recorded words.

This is the man God trusted with His Son.

This is the man who walked behind a little Jewish boy as that child took his first steps.

This is the man who showed his son how to work. How to pray. How to love. How to live.

And sometime between the trip to the temple when Jesus was 12 and when he began his ministry at age 30, Joseph, the man who first heard Jesus say "abba" - died.

He, like a lot of men I've known, don't make it into the family pictures. They are behind the camera making sure everyone else gets what they need.

But God knows.

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