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Dysfunction for Dollars
It's a sad story that you hear all too often nowadays. You can see it practically every day on one of the so-called talk shows. Girl gets pregnant; current boyfriend is not the father; bedlam ensues.
I admit that I stopped for about five minutes on one of these shows this week. If you've ever spent even five minutes watching one of these ridiculous displays, you know the script. Introduce girl with totally dysfunctional life; introduce guy who makes her dysfunction look practically Cleaver-ish; introduce his new "love interest"; and let the shouting, name calling, and security enforcement begin as they strain to claw one another's eyes out before the next commercial break. The lure of the DNA test results that are "coming right up" is supposed to keep the audience engaged in the madness.
Lost sometimes in all the mayhem of these shows are the children and what their lives are and will be like. One episode usually mentions multiple babies born to multiple women, fathered by who knows who...but for the demented pleasure of the viewers, they show all the backlash. Now, I'm sure these shows are quite staged, but I have talked to enough social workers and police officers to know that they are not too far off from heartbreaking reality for way too many children.
Stop for a moment and imagine what type of lives the babies in these nightmarish situations endure. No one is looking after their best interests...at least for far too long. Imagine toddlers, little children, even teenagers growing up without even the slightest notion of normal.
A Stark Difference
A few weeks ago, I was reading a book about orphan care, about the failure of an entire nation to adequately care for the needs of the fatherless. That's why Joe's story stood out so starkly. The story started the same as on many of the "tabloid for TV" shows: teenage girlfriend pregnant, not his baby, emotions running wild. He was prepared to walk away from her and the baby that was not his, and he would have had every right to do so.
Unlike most of the others, though, Joe decided to stick around. He stuck with his girl through her pregnancy and eventually married her. After enduring a trying delivery, she had a healthy baby. Though the book doesn't say much about the rest of Joe's story, it insinuates that he was devoted to his now-wife and that he adopted the little boy and fathered him as his own.
Well done, Joe. Well done.
Joe's son went on to great power and fame while Joe faded into the background, a quiet and often-forgotten figure but heroic in his own way.
Remembering Joe at Christmas
There's a line in the familiar Christmas song "Mary, Did You Know" that asks the musical question: "Mary, did you know that . . . this child that you've delivered, will soon deliver you?" I wonder if Joseph ever pondered -- whether musically or not -- "Joseph, did you know that this child that you've adopted, will soon adopt you?"
This Christmas, as your family hopefully tells the Christmas story, consider Joseph as more than an outlying character. His adoption of Jesus was more central to the story of redemption than most of us have ever thought. Joseph is not the fiance to be pitied or to be cast aside as a minor character in the story of Christmas; instead, he is the representation of God Himself, the God who offers salvation and adoption as sons to those of us who trust in the Son whom Joseph adopted.
I'll see you all back on the blog after Christmas. Merry Christmas, everyone.
Thanks for reading.
4theVoiceless,
Al
To read more about Joseph's adoption of Jesus, check these blogs out:
Jason Kovacs on Love Large, the Abba Fund blog.
Paul Cooper on The Coop Report blog.
Both of these blogs mention Dr. Russell Moore's excellent book, Adopted for Life. If you have never read it, you should. You will gain more insight into God's adoption of us and how that is reflected through physical adoption than you could ever imagine.
