Have you ever wondered?

Have you ever wondered just how much
Courage and true humility it must have taken,
For Mary and Joseph to yield to God's will —
And how their whole world was shaken?

A beautiful, young, pure virgin girl,
Whose walk had been blameless until then,
Finds herself pregnant with God's Son;
While engaged to a much older man…

Try to imagine the looks and the scandal,
The shame she brought on her whole family!
Her best friends were talking behind her back;
They all condemned poor Mary so readily.

Adultery was a most serious crime back then;
A crime punishable even by death.
Joseph was willing to divorce her in silence —
To save Mary from the villagers' wrath.

Every night Joseph lay tossing and turning,
Thinking about the right thing to do;
Until an angel of God said to him in a dream:
"Joseph, you may take Mary, your wife, to you."

"Mary is with child, begotten of the Holy Spirit,"
"And to a son, named Jesus, she'll give birth."
"He will save His people from their sins." —
And Joseph, he obeyed the word he had heard.

Months later, at the time of Jesus' birth,
Joseph was again warned of God in a dream:
King Herod was after their baby's life;
He had devised a mass-murder scheme!

That old tyrant was so afraid to lose power
That he almost went mad with rage!
He give strict orders to his soldiers therefore,
To kill every male child under two years of age.

Joseph obeyed God, he took his wife and child,
And on the back of a donkey they fled.
In Egypt it was they sojourned as strangers,
Until they learned that wicked Herod was dead.

The family returned, and settled in Nazareth;
Thus fulfillment of this prophecy was seen:
"Out of the land of Egypt have I called My Son";
And: "He shall be called a Nazarene."

- -

Because of Mary and Joseph's obedience
What was written in the scriptures came true.
The world has since changed, but even today —
Doing God's will takes great courage too.

The will of the Lord is always perfect and good;
His Word, His Truth, has been long-standing…
In all your ways, therefore, acknowledge Him
And do not lean on your own understanding!