A few weeks ago, I sat at a restaurant with three other fathers. We were sharing ‘war stories’ of parenting. It suddenly dawned on me. The unique quality we all had at the table is each one of us chose to raise children who were not biologically our’s. It had not even crossed anyone’s mind. Yet, as we shared our war stories, we were just fathers . . . father who love their children.
Yet, our children were not our’s by blood or DNA. Each of us chose to love children who were our’s by a deep love. Many could never imagine a love like each of our’s. To us, we could not imagine our lives without our children we love and adore.
A powerful part of the Christmas story is where a man chooses to love and raise a child who was not of his own seed. Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus, had a choice to leave or stay with Mary yet he rose to the occasion. He remained to be the husband destined for Mary and the earthly father destined for the Messiah. Despite the possible terrible cultural embarrassment of staying, he stuck to his word.
I bet if I could interview Joseph and inquire what his favorite verse in the whole Bible, it would be Matthew 13:55:
“Isn’t this the carpenter’s son?”
Jesus’ power, character, and reputation was being questioned and scoffed by what people knew of his reputation. This was one of the accusation to make Jesus familiar and a simpleton. Yet as a father, there is nothing which brings more pride and assuredness for one of my children to be known as mine. I believe Joseph looks at this verse with a smile and says to himself, “Yep, that’s my boy!”
Joseph gets overlooked a lot in the Christmas story but I wonder what it was like to get to heaven and talk face to face to God the Father of all Fathers. I am sure God said, “Thanks for being there for my boy!” But this would be followed by a simple, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”
There is power in adoption. No matter how a child becomes adopted by a love one, it is a powerful, life altering event for both the child or children and the parents. There is power in Spirit. When it comes to adoption, let us always remember blood is thicker than water but Spirit is thicker than blood.
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