Who would ever think that Joseph, a carpenter from Nazareth, would become foster father to the Son of God? And a long six days’ journey away from home? In a stable! And with a manager for a crib? Too much to comprehend!
Mary and Joseph were childhood friends. But, when he began thinking – really thinking – about Mary, he knew he had better marry her before someone else did! The arrangements were made, and they announced their engagement.

Then Joseph notices that Mary is acting a little differently – and she now wants to visit her elder cousin, who some were saying was expecting a baby. Mary was gone three months and when she returned her eyes were flashing, her smile was radiant. The character and purity that had drawn him to her were more evident. She wore her goodness gracefully!
From her pure lips, Mary confessed that she was pregnant! How? He heard some story about the Holy Spirit overshadowing her, which made no sense to Joseph! Divorce was the only legal way to end their engagement, but he would have to expose Mary to the town elders, who would take her to a cliff, make her jump or push her off, with the town’s men waiting at the base of the rocks to throw stones at her until all life had ebbed from her body! Joseph could not stand that thought! With little money, he would have to make extreme sacrifices to hire a great attorney to divorce her privately.

Then Joseph has a dream – not a thought – but a true dream, where an Angel appeared to him and told him it was okay to marry Mary, because her story about the Holy Spirit “overshadowing her” was in fact a fact! Not sure if this was wishful thinking or reality, Joseph was more perplexed than ever! But, being a man of faith, his crumbled world was rebuilt. As quickly as possible, he went to Mary: “Now I know; now I understand.” Mary must come to his home and become his wife.

Suddenly the bad news came. Caesar Augustus had decided he was being cheated out of taxes because of the inadequate census. The public order stated that every mother’s son alive would take his family and return to his ancestral city to register for taxation. Would he have to take Mary? He pleaded with the city elders to allow him an exemption since Mary was “great with child,” but none was granted.

Five days of hard traveling got them to Jerusalem, but they had to go on to Bethlehem. Bethlehem was small and now extremely overcrowded. The manager of the inn was kind and truly was not listening to their plight, but said, “We have tents pitched in the alley and even cots on the roof,” all of which would not work!  “But we also have a cave out back where the animals are kept if that would do!” Maybe Joseph had not heard the Angel correctly! God would allow His Son to be born in a barn? Is not God a proud Father? Ceasar’s palace would be the only suitable place!
Then the silence! It was quiet, and yet there was music. It was the music of life being played from every cloud in the heavens. And there was light in the distance, in the hills of Bethlehem. Shepherds were directed to “our cave!”  How?

Maybe Jesus came into this life under these hard circumstances because God never intended His Son to be coddled or served, but for another reason altogether. Maybe we have come to this Christmas season to allow God to show us He is willing to get into this fouled-up life, not just with His birth but with Himself, to face our hardships and fears, and temptations, and maybe even our deaths. Then we would know He knows what it is like here and what it will take to salvage us! And maybe we can know what He is like and what we can expect from Him.

Can we possibly understand why Christ arrived incognito, just like you and me? Not in Caesar’s palace, not in Herod’s halls, but quietly, in a cowshed with a lowly, confused carpenter for a Foster Father!