Home for the Holidays 22 – Chanukah 7

Written on December 23, 2014.

Jesse Tree

Day 22 – December 22

ENTRUSTED

In discussions of our heroes of old, there is one least mentioned. Joseph, often viewed as the fill in the gap man in Jesus life or a temporary father of no significance outside of that role.

Joseph was chosen not for how well he could fill a hole, but for how vastly he could make things whole. A carpenter, a builder, entrusted to complete.

A man undarkened by the world around him. A man lightened by who dwelt inside him. A man who used the tools of his heart with even greater magnitude than he did the tools of his trade.

In the house of his covenant, there was no spare room for competing. Joseph did not look at what Mary carried within her womb as threat to what he carried in the heart of him. He was not diminished as she increased. He was in fact, enlarged.

Even as Joseph built a roof over their heads, he became the covering for their covenant. He allowed himself to love Jesus, as his own even as he himself was redeemed by this Savior with skinned knees and toothless grins.

Joseph was not a bankrupt place holder in the life of Christ. Jesus did not call him Joseph, he called him father. An incredible definition of father in hebrew is ‘household’. Jesus called Joseph his household, his covering, the covenant he dwelt within until it was time for his to be revealed.

Chanukah

Sundown 7

As Mary carried the light of Christ, Joseph carried the light for Christ. He guided, ministered, mentored, taught and trained Jesus, so he could be given as the carpenter for the world. Joseph taught Jesus to build. One day, the blueprint he gave as inheritance would be revealed as Jesus built God’s Kingdom throughout the world. Tonight as you light the candle, celebrate the blueprint you carry and all the Kingdom that will be revealed through you.