If you ask a photographer to name their favorite moments to photograph, one poignant moment that would top the list is that of a father’s face when he sees his newborn child. The look is invariably one of loving awe, a piercing moment of tenderness and, to some degree, fear. “How is it that the God of the universe has entrusted this tiny, frail creature to me?” the young father wonders. As the child grows, the father’s fears and worries change, yet the tender love also remains.
St. Joseph, too, experienced this same mixture of wonder, love and trepidation in looking upon the child Jesus. How he must have marveled at the fact that God chose him, in all his creaturely weakness, to be the earthly father of the incarnate Word. St. Joseph was not abandoned in his fears, however, for God the father lovingly provided constantly for the Holy Family, working not despite their human frailty, but through it.
Your fears, frailties and weaknesses are not a surprise to God. He always sees the bigger picture, and it is in and through these same weaknesses that his loving tenderness touches, welcomes, embraces, sustains and forgives us.
De Witt is Christian Formation Director Our Lady of Mercy Church in Baton Rouge