The Holy Family: Adopting God

Here is my piece on St. Joseph from BustedHalo.com that I mentioned:

The God-Adopter
Reflections on St. Joseph from a soon-to-be adoptive father
by Mike Hayes

As Christmas Day draws closer and crèche scenes start to pop up in New York City, I inevitably begin to think about the Holy Family. But this Christmas, as my wife and I begin the process of adopting a child, I find myself drawn closer to the life of St. Joseph than ever before.
Imagine Joseph’s surprise when, in his old age, he accepts Mary as his betrothed only to find out later that she is pregnant. By law, Joseph had the right to stone Mary. So the first intended audience for the gospel must have found it quite surprising that Joseph decided to simply “divorce her quietly.”

A second surprise is that this choice causes Joseph so much angst that he can not even sleep soundly. A dream instructs him to be unafraid to take Mary into his home and also tells him to take this child, who is clearly not his biological child, and adopt him as his own. In his time this surely would have brought him shame and ridicule and yet, Joseph stays faithful to the dream; a vision of something he probably didn’t fully understand; but a dream that he felt held the very revelation of God within it.

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