Jeremiah 23:5-8 / Matthew 1:18-24
Most of us would consider ourselves as a common average person.
We don't expect to become someone famous and popular, nor become someone of high importance like being the President or the Prime Minister, or the Pope or the Bishop.
Most of us would consider ourselves to be like Joseph, who makes an honest living with his carpentry skills, puts his faith in God and is a man of honour.
Like the people of his time, Joseph was also waiting for the promise of the Messiah to be fulfilled.
But did Joseph expect it to be fulfilled during his time? And did he ever expect that he would have an important role in this fulfillment of the promise of God?
Obviously it would be "No". In fact, when Mary was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit, Joseph being a man of honour and wanting to spare her publicity, decided to divorce her informally.
Yet Joseph accepted the will of God through the promptings in a dream.
We may not have dreams like Joseph to tell us what God wants of us.
But we have the Word of God, the Holy Scriptures to guide us to discern God's will.
And we also have Jesus, the Emmanuel, who will be with us to help us be the person that God wants us to be.