Joseph Speaks

Lord, I never asked for this.

I am such an ordinary man,

Trying to do my job and pay my bills

Taking pride in the work of my hands;

These calloused fingers, rough from the wood’s coarse grain

Scarred from the sharp-edged learning of my trade,

Patient to smooth and straighten, to make beauty.

I wanted what most normal men desire:

The wife I loved, her smile to light my days,

Small children with her eyes and my strong bones,

In time a son to learn my trade from me,

And Galilee was all the world I knew.

And then you came

Like the whirlwind that met with Job, tossing my life around,

So I no longer know what stands up straight:

The girl I love is bearing God’s own son,

And I walk humbled by this miracle,

Stumbling confused, nigh too afraid to touch,

Amazed, confounded, wondering who she is

And what my part is ..

How do I raise my God?

How do I keep the Lord almighty safe?

Of what stuff am I made to walk this path?

And must I teach the Saviour of mankind

The way to properly join two beams of wood,

And ask his hands to hold the nails for me?