Joe's Dilema

As you can see from this mornings reading Joseph had a dilema to face.

To be quite honest it’s not really the sort of dilema that many of us will have to face,

I now for a fact that no one here will ever be told that there wife to be is expecting a child concieved by the Holy Spirit .

So I don’t think that I am the best qualified person to speak on Joseph’s dilema.

What I have done though is organised for a very special person to speak on Josephs dilema, probably the most qualified person to do it.

Could you please welcome our guest.

Joseph

INTROD. JOSEPH.

Good morning ,

its really good to be here this morning and I’m especially grateful to you all to get the opportunity to tell you about my dilemma.

I think its probably appropriate though for me to tell you the whole story.

Well it all started some time ago in a little town called Nazareth.

In case you haven’t already guessed Nazareth was my home town, and my fathers also.

My father Jacob had been the local carpenter in Nazareth all his life

so it was only appropriate that I should follow in the family foot steps.

This I did

I learnt my trade from my father and worked along side him till the day I became of age.

On that day my name was added to the sign above the door,

in bold letters for the whole world to see.

Joseph bar Jonah carpenter extrodinare,

all jobs considered,

free quotes given,

and of course our motto

our yokes fit first time every time guranteed.

I was rather happy working here by myself,

because it meant that I was my own boss,

I had no one to answer too,

but of course it did get lonely sometimes,

I often thought it would be really good to have a son running around like I had with my father, Unfortunately I was still single and little miss right had not yet crossed my door step.

It was just that I had never met the right girl,

The sort of girl that makes you want to sing and

dance.

It was on one of these lonely days when it happened Out of the blue she walked in to my work shop.

She was wonderful

everything I had ever dreamed of

and more beside.

I remember it well

it was a Monday morning just before smoko when she walked in.

Her father

had sent her on a message,

I think it was a foot stool,

Oh Yes !!! that was it

what a happy day when that broken foot stool came my way.

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It was quite funny because I had never ever taken any notice of her before,

she was younger than me but not too much, rather giggly and immature in some ways,

but when our eyes met it was amazing.

This was the one ,

Mary the girl I would marry.

That day when she left my shop I felt like my life had been changed

it was almost like an angel had been to visit me,

but that feeling was never to leave me

there was a song in my heart that day

a love song about Mary.

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Now you must understand I was a really good catch for anyone

with my own business and that

So when I went to visit her father to ask for Mary hand in marriage

he joyfully accepted

And so our courtship began,

a match that was made in heaven.

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In due time we were engaged,

back home in our culture that meant that I had to pay quite a large sum of money to Mary father,

but she was worth every last penny of it.

Now she was mine

and of course I was hers,

my wandering eyes were laid to rest

because I only had eyes for Mary.

And so we waited for that day when our union would be made final

and we would become one flesh.

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But something went wrong

Of course something had to go wrong

it was almost like it was to good to be true.

Today I still struggle with it,

I struggle to understand what happened

and why God would call us as he did ???????????.

But I am jumping ahead a bit,

I better go back to the story.

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One morning Mary came to me,

of course she looked beautiful as always

but today there was something odd about her

you see it’s almost like she was glowing,

YES that was it

she was glowing.

Her expression though told a different story,

she looked quite uneasy as she approached me. being a loving caring husband to be I asked her what was wrong,