(March 19th Commemorates Joseph, Stepfather of Jesus)
Joseph, the Faithful Carpenter
Ponders the news he keeps concealed
His bride-to-be is found with child—
A father’s name is not revealed.
As Joseph slumbers fitfully
An angel enters Joseph’s dream
To tell him that this comes from God
And things are not as they may seem:
“O, Joseph, banish all your fears
And take Young Mary as your wife
And be a father to God’s child
Who comes to share in human life.”
Good Joseph, born of David’s line
(Which matters not in days of Rome)
Bequeaths a human royalty
And gives the Boy a godly home.
A jealous Herod fears this King,
So Joseph takes them speedily
To Egypt, where again he works,
To care for his small family.
An angel tells that Herod’s dead,
So Joseph brings them all back home;
He brings them to quaint Nazareth
And raises God’s Son as his own.
---C. Marie Byars, (c) 1999
An angel enters Joseph’s dream
To tell him that this comes from God
And things are not as they may seem:
“O, Joseph, banish all your fears
And take Young Mary as your wife
And be a father to God’s child
Who comes to share in human life.”
Good Joseph, born of David’s line
(Which matters not in days of Rome)
Bequeaths a human royalty
And gives the Boy a godly home.
A jealous Herod fears this King,
So Joseph takes them speedily
To Egypt, where again he works,
To care for his small family.
An angel tells that Herod’s dead,
So Joseph brings them all back home;
He brings them to quaint Nazareth
And raises God’s Son as his own.
---C. Marie Byars, (c) 1999
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2 comments:
Beautiful. Thanks.
Thank you for visiting, Anonymous! Sometimes I am a bit critical of this one, as it seems to have so little of the Divine perspective and practically none of the salvation history in it. But then again, those thoughts still have not come to me, after all this time, in this rhyme and meter scheme. I think, in this, I'm a little locked into Joseph's perspective, which is kind of what I was aiming for. Though they had all that Old Testament prophecy, Jesus' contemporaries didn't really understand what was going on. So this poem/song ends up not being real theological, but I think it's kind of true to how Joseph was operating. Plus rhyming, metered work is always a challenge.
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