step dad

Step dads don't get a lot of great press.  Generally speaking, they weren't chosen by the child.  Frequently, they act in the place of a dearly loved "real" dad, with all the resentment that carries.  They don't have all the clout or authority they would with a biological child.  It's a tough job, but as they say, someone has to do it...

Jesus was raised by a step dad - Joseph.  As if Joseph didn't have it bad enough, Jesus real father actually IS perfect!!  He is quite the investor, too - designing the entire universe along with His son's assistance.  Though apparently, Joe didn't have to discipline the eldest child in the household.  I wonder if he felt like a third wheel at times.

But that step dad stepped up when the going was tough.  He married a disgraced fiancé, and took some of the disgrace upon himself, though it wasn't deserved.  He ended up running for his life to a foreign country with his bride and step son, again, through no fault of his own.  Joe falls off the Biblical pages long before his son was kindergarten age.  Maybe he was around for Jesus' teenage years and young adulthood.  We don't know.  But we know it certainly would have been a very different Christmas story with that man.

 Here's to a step dad worthy to emulate:  loyal, strong, decisive, loving.  God picked a good one!  And maybe Jesus had a hand in the picking, too, before He left His throne in favor of a cattle stall, that is….