Seeker

We know what Mary was doing on the night Jesus was born, but what was Joseph doing? No, I think it most unlikely he would have been helping Mary to give birth. That was a female duty and it is inconceivable that local women would not have rallied round to assist a young woman in labour with her first child, whatever the circumstances. While the midwives or Joseph's female relatives of Bethlehem supported Mary through labour and the birth of her firstborn son, what did Joseph do? Stay nearby to protect her? Most probably, but it would have been hard to do nothing through the long hours of waiting and wanting do help but feeling helpless. So, there's plenty of room to imagine what Joseph might have done during the hours of Mary's labour.  Thanks to Byrony Taylor's post I came across an animated poem by Nick Morgan about how Joseph might have kept busy. It is imaginative, simple and profound. I am grateful to Nick Morgan for giving it a Creative Commons licence ...

We knew him as the carpenter's son. The carpenter was Joseph, son of Jacob. You could trust him. He was a good man, was Joseph. We expected young Jesus to be a 'chip off the old block'. We thought he would go on working with his father - at the bench - or out on a building site somewhere. Then take over the business when Joseph died. But Jesus went off for a while - don't know where. We heard he wasn't working as a journeyman carpenter. He was healing and preaching. What him? the carpenter's son? When he came home, we were intrigued. We crowded into our synagogue in Nazareth to hear him. It was astounding what he said. How did he learn that at the carpenter's bench? Who is putting these ideas in his head? Yes, we did take offence. If you take what Jesus says seriously, who knows where it will end? You could trust Joseph, but Jesus? Not a chip off the old block after all. Joseph could build a table fit for a banq...