Wednesday, December 21, 2005

What we have in Common with the Holy Family

The other night the FYO and I were playing with this ancient, beat-up nativity set that I had when I was a kid. It is really old-timy looking and most of the figures have lost one body part or another.

Since there were only two of us, each had to play several parts in our little nativity play.

One of my assignments was to be the Joseph character.

At one point, the FYO told me that Joseph would then have to be elevated to heaven in order to play God.

Why? I said.

Well, because he is the father of Jesus! She looked at me in disbelief as if to say, "didn't you KNOW that?"

Actually, [FYO], you're right, God is the father of Jesus, but Joseph is not God. Joseph is Jesus' earthly father.

What does earthly mean?

At this point, I found myself in strangely familiar territory.

What it means is that Joseph was the person that raised him. Not the person that made him.

2 comments:

Sara said...

Very good point. I like it!!

By the way - congratulations on your new addition!! He's adorable!

Sarah and BB said...

That is the sweetest thing ever! And so true, I never thought of it that way. I am going to keep that in mind for the future.