Note: On Tuesdays and some Sundays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.
When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home. (Matthew 1:24, NABRE)
It has become one of my favorite scripture verses, Matthew 1:24 when Joseph awakes from his dream. He’s been planning to quietly divorce Mary, what with her being pregnant with someone else’s baby and all. But then there’s that dream, when the angel explains 
what’s happened and what Joseph is to do.
And what does Joseph do? He doesn’t navel gaze about this strange turn of events. He doesn’t go to talk with his prayer group or his spiritual adviser or a relative or even Mary about what has happened, and what that dream really means, how it should be interpreted. Nope, he just does what the angel has said. He takes Mary into his home.
It will not be the last time an angel appears in a dream to Joseph. Months later, he will be told to leave Bethlehem and take Jesus and Mary to Egypt. He does that too, without gnashing his teeth or spending hours in prayer. There’s also no drama when he’s told it’s safe to go back to Israel… and then when he’s warned not to go to Judea.
It was a simple faith that Joseph had, just doing what the Lord told him to do. Perhaps it made him the perfect earthly father for Jesus, who as an adult would boil down ten commandments and hundreds of Mosaic laws into two great commandments, whose ministry was all about love—and surrender and obedience.
