Christmas carols like Silent Night would have us believe that, when Christ was born into the world, all was calm and bright. But, in fact, Jesus’ birth was messy. Mary and Joseph’s hopes and plans were turned upside down, and they suddenly found themselves in the middle of chaos and danger. But they both said yes to the call.

Scripture tells us very little about Joseph. We know he was a carpenter from Nazareth. Tradition tells us that he was significantly older than Mary. The Gospel of Matthew tells us that he was a “righteous man,” who loved Mary and did not want anything bad to happen to her.

We also know that Joseph was a man of dreams, much like his namesake in the book of Genesis (remember Joseph who was sold into slavery by his brothers?). He did not just have dreams; he trusted his dreams. God knew that and decided to speak to him through a dream, so as to reassure him that Mary was telling the truth. He woke up and immediately married Mary.

We all like to have control of our lives. We like to know what is going to happen next, and what we are supposed to do. We don’t like surprises. Joseph was certainly surprised by Mary’s pregnancy. No doubt it took him some time to adjust to the shock of the news, but when he did, he was willing to allow God to change his plans. Moreover, we like to understand what is happening in our lives. We want to feel that we have some rational control in our lives, that what is happening makes some sense. Instead, Joseph was willing to trust his dreams, not his rational mind, which was probably telling him that Mary’s story was a total lie. Neither scripture nor tradition give us any indication that Joseph ever second guessed his decision to take Mary as his wife: his trust was that complete. Sometimes saying yes to God means letting go of our need for control in order to let God call the shots.