18: Now the birth of Jesus Christ was in this way: when his mother Mary was going to be married to Joseph, before they came together the discovery was made that she was with child by the Holy Spirit.
19: And Joseph, her husband, being an upright man, and not desiring to make her a public example, had a mind to put her away privately.
20: But when he was giving thought to these things, an angel of the Lord came to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, have no fear of taking Mary as your wife; because that which is in her body is of the Holy Spirit. Matt 1
We hear so much, and correctly so, about Mary's courage in accepting the Holy Spirit at the Annunciation. OTOH Joseph's courage was nearly as large. No the pregnancy did not happen to him personally. No man has ever had that particular challenge/joy but in a culture of extreme rectitude, in a small town, he stayed by his pregnant fiance knowing full well that he was not the father. Line 19 was about the best Mary could hope for in 'normal' circumstances. But Joseph was much better than normal. He followed through with the marriage and was a faithful husband and father. That is hard in any age or circumstance. Joseph did it knowing his buddies were laughing behind his back and his family was probably sort of disapproving too. They could all count to 9 and knew that he had not been into early relations.
I will keep his courage in mind. Sometimes it is better to ignore the local conventions and do what i know in my heart is right.
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