As I approached writing songs for each of the characters in the Christmas story, I felt particularly protective of Joseph, who I think sometimes doesn’t get the attention he’s due. At the very least I know that I’ve been guilty of not really “seeing” him for the remarkable man that he was, and I wanted to amend that. I enlisted my friend Andy Gullahorn, one of the most masterful storytellers I know, to explore a particular moment in Joseph’s story with me.
Taking my cue from Frederick Buechner’s book, “Peculiar Treasures,” in which he breathes new life into biblical characters who have grown so familiar to us that we no longer experience them as real human beings, I hoped to recapture some of the humanity of the people in the Christmas narrative. It was also important to me to try and write songs that were relevant beyond the four weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas day. I wanted to tell timeless human stories, and with Joseph we have the makings of just that with a love triangle, a question of revenge or forgiveness, and the age old drama of fathers and sons.
As I read his part in the narrative, I found that more than just a foster parent without much to do (as he was often relegated to in my mind), Joseph is revealed as a man after God’s own heart. Faced not only with the news that his fiancée is pregnant, but also with her incredulous story of how it was God’s doing, Joseph’s character is tested and laid out for all of us to see. What will he do? Will he hurt the one who has hurt him? Will he forgive? This is his moment, and all of history waits and watches in wonder.
There are few things more painful than the betrayal and rejection by the one you love most, so we know it must have deeply wounded him—shattering the dreams he may have had of a future with the girl he loved. Pain is like a lightning bolt striking with a violent energy that can’t be held in the human heart for long. It looks for a way out. The way it usually passes through us is in the all too common progression of hurt turning into anger and then into vengeance. Unless the miracle of forgiveness takes place in a person’s heart to absorb it, the pain we experience will pass through us and be visited upon others.
There is debate as to whether it was within Joseph’s power to have her stoned—while Jewish custom might have allowed it, Roman rule did not. However, if not to her body, we know he still could have done violence to her reputation and her heart. But I believe that Joseph did the hard work of bringing his pain to God rather than letting it pass through him, and that God graced him with the miracle of forgiveness. The narrative tells us he was a “godly man” and that instead of doing her harm, “he decided to dismiss her quietly” so that she wouldn’t be publicly shamed. He took the full force of the blow and–acting as the husband he might have been–became a covering over her supposed sin.
It’s hard for us to experience the tension in Joseph’s story since, as the reader, we know from the start that she isn’t guilty of what he naturally supposes and that God is up to something beautiful that the world has never seen before. But to see Joseph for who he is, I have to remember that he couldn’t know these things in real time. It was only after he had given himself to the work of forgiveness that the angel appeared to him in a dream to tell him that what Mary had said was true after all, and that he should marry her.
It occurred to me that perhaps this is where Joseph’s heart was proven—if not to God who already knew his heart, then perhaps to himself. (I haven’t met a man yet who isn’t daunted by the responsibility of being a father, let alone a father to the Son of God. Maybe this was a test to reveal to Joseph what kind of man he could be.) In this moment he is found to be a man of mercy, which I imagine to be just the kind of man that God was looking for to be the earthly father of his son Jesus. In a way, we see that Joseph carries in his heart the same world changing power of forgiveness that Mary carried in her womb.
It’s also meaningful to me to think of how Joseph forgiving Mary is part of the story that leads to the birth of the savior in whom Joseph would find forgiveness for his own sins. Perhaps it’s the narrative form of Jesus’ teaching that as we forgive we find ourselves forgiven.
As we wrote the song, it was good to be reminded that forgiveness is a kind of miracle. I could be wrong, but I’m not sure that we can muster up forgiveness on our own. It seems to me to be a supernatural force of renewal that we participate in as we point our hearts toward it, pray for it, and make room for it in our lives, but that ultimately we receive it as a gift from God, in his due time.
Forgiveness Is A Miracle (A Song For Joseph)
Jason Gray / Andy Gullahorn
from Christmas Stories: Repeat the Sounding Joy
Love can make a soul come alive
Love can draw a dream out of the darkness
And blow every door open wide
But love can leave you broken hearted
Did she dare to look you in the eye
Did her betrayal leave you raging?
Did you let her see you cry
When she said the child was not your baby?
Pain can turn to anger then to vengeance
It happens time and again
Even in the best of men
It takes a miracle to save us
When love is like an open wound
There’s no way to stop the bleeding
Did you lose sleep over what to do?
Between what’s just and what brings healing
Pain can be a road to find compassion
When we don’t understand, and bring a better end
It takes a miracle to show us
Forgiveness is a miracle
A miracle
And a miracle can change your world
Forgiveness is a miracle
An angel in a dream spoke into your darkest night
So you trusted in the Lord and you took her as your wife
But the forgiveness that you gave would be given back to you
Because you carried in your heart what she was holding in her womb
Love was in a crowded barn
There you were beside her kneeling
You held it in your arms
As the miracle started breathing
Forgiveness is the miracle
The miracle
And a miracle will change your world
Forgiveness is the miracle
Forgiveness is the miracle
The miracle
A miracle will save the world
Forgiveness is the miracle
Forgiveness is the miracle
Forgiveness is the miracle
Blessed Joseph
Your heart is proven
And through you the Kingdom has come
For God delights in a man of mercy
And has found an earthly father for his son
https://youtube.com/watch?v=G7EIpPlsHmQ%3Frel%3D0
Jason Gray is a recording artist with Centricity Records. His latest single, out now, is "When I Say Yes".
14 Comments
Lydia
Wow, you TOTALLY brought out the story of Joseph in a whole new REAL way. You make me think of how much people back then are really like compared with us nowadays. Everyone has a hard time forgiving, I have a friend who I hurt very badly back in the beginnning of August and she refuses to completely forgive me. I pray that one day I can make up for the hurt I caused with the words I said. That is one reason that I love the title of this song “Forgiveness is a MIRACLE”!! Thanks so much for this song and CD!!
Dan R.
I just want to say that I think having Sara Groves singing on this song is awesome! One of my favorite themes of hers is the very theme of this song, and from the minute I connected the song title with the fact she was singing on it I was in awe.
sallie kate
Stunning in story and in sound. Thank you for sharing.
Brenda Branson
Jason, both the lyrics to the song and your blog are excellent! I really love how you described Joseph as a man of mercy and this thought: “Joseph carries in his heart the same world changing power of forgiveness that Mary carried in her womb.” Wow!
I totally agree that we can’t muster up that kind of forgiveness, but it comes as a gift of God when we lay down our right for revenge and allow His Spirit to move in us and bring transformation and healing.
Jaclyn
“Love was in a crowded barn
There you were beside her kneeling
You held it in your arms
As the miracle started breathing”
ahh…
E.
Jason Gray, God is using your music to change my unloving heart. This song is amazing! Spot on dear brothers, spot on!
Julie Silander
I’m stopped by the lightening bolt. Wow. And extra points for introducing me to a new Buechner book. This is beautiful. Thank you.
Candy G
Spiritual insight is one of those gifts that most cannot put into words, let alone poetically. The music behind this touches the soul as well. It occurs to me that not everyone will “get it” when it is released if they don’t get to read the blog but “he who has ears, let him hear”. Thanks, I need this… daily.
Mickey Radcliff
Simply…..wow! I find that being a man betrayed and that also being a man of betrayal, that forgiveness is in and by God’s will, the miracle of miracles. Thanks so much Jason for your study, your careful disection of human feelings and your obvious search of lyrical truths found in the Holy scriptures! I have got to get this Christmas Album.
Mindy
I can’t tell you how amazed I am at what you just wrote, and how interesting it is, because there seems to be a lot of songs being written, within this past year about this same theme- Forgiveness. Having just been through a situation in which I had to forgive betrayal by the person I love most, I can say that yes I believe it is a miracle, and a most precious gift. I wanted to forgive, but the depth of how I’ve been able too is beyond what I could do. It is a miracle. One that I am so grateful for every day, because without it, I would not have been able to heal in the way that I have. Thanks so much for your words and the songs you write. The Holy Spirit, I think, is speaking through all these songs about the miracle of forgiveness.
Lorie
Jason,
I often thank the Lord for the incredible gift he has given you to bring words to many of my feelings which lay unspoken, and sometimes unknown to me, until you express them in your songs. Thank you for your honesty and vulnerability. (We are all just ragamuffins 🙂
Thank you for taking such care with this album. My cd should be arriving any day now, and I look forward to listening to it in its finished form.
The way God has helped you to bring Joseph to life is awesome!
Charr
Thank you Jason. God has given you a much needed gift for this world. God Bless you.
mamie
I love the beauty of this song and how well you captured Joseph’s very important story. Well done Mr. Gray.
Pam
Jason, I just bought your Christmas album today. My favorite song is “Forgiveness is a Miracle”. I’ve always had great devotion to St. Joseph, and agree with you that he is often overlooked and under appreciated. Thank you for devoting a song to him and pointing out the difficulty he endured at first when Mary told him about the Baby. This song really shows his hurt, but ultimately his strength and love for God and for Mary. I love all your music. God bless you for using it for His glory and sharing it with us!
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