Would God trust you?

Did a study on Joseph, the "earthly" father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He was not as popular as his wife Mary and I have yet to hear any sermon on him preached in the church, except the sermon which I myself preached in Philippine a few years back. After doing some study on him, I found him to be quite an extraordinary guy.

He had to suffer much because of God's plan for this world. Why did I say that? Try to imagine these situations: -

1) How would you feel when your fiance/wife is pregnant and you are sure you are not the father to the child?

2)Then your fiance/wife tells you one out of the world story that she did not have sexual intercourse nor did she used any modern technology to get her herself pregnant but that she is supernaturally being made pregnant.

3)You have to choose either to let your fiance/wife bear the public shame which could cause her to be stoned to death, or to marry her and take in the shame upon yourself.

4)Do you risked your wife's life and the baby in the womb just because you have to register for a census? You and your wife (who is almost due) have to walk or sit on a donkey and travel for a few days to register.

5)How would you feel when people that you don't know come and worship your baby?

6)How would you feel when foreign people come and worship your child and told you that this child would be a King someday?

7)How would you feel when you are told that this child of yours will be the saviour of mankind and that you too will one day bow in worship before him?

8)What would you do if angel visited you and tell you to flee to another place because someone wants to kill the child? And you can't go to the "police" because they are the instrument used by the authority who ordered the killing?

9)How would you feel when your child conveniently stayed back at the place where he wants to be, without informing you and you thought that he is missing. You tried to find him for 3 days without any success.

Despite all that Joseph had to go through, God trusted him to take care of Jesus. Joseph did not abuse Jesus even though Jesus is not his real son. Joseph taught Jesus the trade of carpentry. And Joseph provided an excellent role model of an earthly father to Jesus.