18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. Matthew 1:18-19

We don’t know much about Joseph, but what we do know we can admire. Early on he didn’t understand what was going on (and many 2000 years later don’t quite understand), but didn’t want Mary to be the subject of a scandal. Was he just saving his own hide or did he care for her? We obviously can’t know his motives, but we do know what Scripture tells us.

Joseph didn’t have all the facts, but he was prepared to do an honorable thing, and one that was lawful. Fortunately, he was stopped, something we’ll discuss tomorrow.

What do we do? If we can, we pray and wait.

If we’re not able to wait, we pray that God will honor that decision and redirect us if we’re wrong.

Just like Joseph, the decisions we make are sometimes difficult. He made decisions based on what he knew to be true. We have the same set of guidelines. We don’t always have all the facts but we have to make heart-wrenching decisions nonetheless.