Is “Josephine” your middle name? – this  is a common question I get asked over the course of a near half-a-century life I have lived on the planet. Middle names are usually paternal or maternal names from previous generations to be able to keep track of the child’s family tree.   “No, not really” comes the emphatic reply, after a big sigh of having to explain the 3  names I was bestowed with , incidentally all part of my first name.  “Mary” from my maternal grandma’s maternal instinctive prayer to the Blessed mother as her daughter was in danger when I was stretching the short transit to the world as loooong as my name.  “Josephine” because my father prayed to the father of Jesus (still don’t know why he picked him to pray to?!) for a safe delivery.  “June” was special from a special God mother of dad from Los Angeles who lit up our lives and left a blazing trail.

I can almost imagine my dad, knowing him, sitting at a desk with these 3 names in front of him and torn by the desire to please everybody trying to naming his beautiful daughter, shuffling and rearranging them to sound right when suddenly his bright mind recollected  from his American consultate job experience that most Americans  had a  first, middle and last name.  Voila!  She can be Mary Josephine June  alias Mary J. June he decided in that Eureka moment  which he reasoned was like Mary Joseph and Jesus , like the Holy family.  Great dad!  There is just one problem though dad,  I have your 14 letter  long name  as my last name in addition, which all in all choke my passport columns  with three fantastic meaningful first names!

No one calls or has called  me Josephine  and hence I haven’t given much thought for a good chunk of my life.  Just recently someone asked me permission to call me by my so called ‘middle name’ because they liked the sound of Josephine?  I did warn them that  I may not turn around  when they call me because my brain cells will have to rewire to own that name to my being.

Curious about  Joseph and ‘Josephine’ now, I turned to the Bible to look up at this guy called Joseph. It said he was a descendant of King David.  Royalty!  That’s cool I thought, I can live with that .  Royal lineage must be something of value to boast around those days.  Among the four Gospels Matthew starts off with this long list of the lineage of Jesus Christ right from Abraham and it mentioned Joseph in this unusual way, completely ignoring him as the father of Jesus. Atrocious!

Matthew Chapter 1 NLT version

The Ancestors of Jesus the Messiah

1 This is a record of the ancestors of Jesus the Messiah, a descendant of David and of Abraham

² Abraham was the father of Isaac.
Isaac was the father of Jacob

……….……

Obed was the father of Jesse.
⁶ Jesse was the father of King David.
David was the father of Solomon….

………. Matthan was the father of Jacob.
¹⁶ Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary.
Mary gave birth to Jesus, who is called the Messiah.

What!!!! Everybody had a father and was a father to somebody in the lineage of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world and the Bible does not acknowledge our hero Joseph who was the father of Jesus.  That’s cold!!! Even 2000 years later to me Josephine,  named after him, it hurts. . Looks like Mother’s took over from that point on and Joseph just played the husband role. Or, even that role, did he really?

Further aroused with the atrocious injustice done to Joseph in the lineage history, I dug more into the Gospels to know about this guy called ‘Joseph’ who is hardly ever mentioned in the Bible.  And why would he pop into my pop’s head at the time of my birth (Dad never even mentioned him later in life either except one time!).  Bugs me!  Well, this is what I found ……..

¹⁸ This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ Joseph, to whom she was engaged, was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly.

²⁰ As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. ²¹ And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus,^[for he will save his people from their sins.”

²² All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet:

²³ “Look! The virgin will conceive a child!
    She will give birth to a son,
and they will call him Immanuel,
    which means ‘God is with us.’”

²⁴ When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife. ²⁵ But he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born. And Joseph named him Jesus.

Joseph rattles me up and disturbs my inner core!  Reading this passage, I imagine him as a young man full of hopes and dreams to marry this young girl he was engaged to.  Bible says, he is a good man – a righteous man (Oh boy!  How hard that can be… to just be good!).  He knows he comes from the royalty blood line of King David.  All this sounds good until this Angel Gabriel shakes up his world in a dream. His dream girl is pregnant and yeah not by him.  She carries the Son of God and was conceived by the Holy Spirit (Who is that guy, by the way? He must have wondered as there was no Bible in His times and I am sure Pentecost day experiences were unheard of).   I can hear him say “ Okay fine. I’ll let go of Mary if she is God’s bride.  I will not disgrace her because this is who I am – I am a good man (I feel you Joseph! Bro!  It’s hard to be good in this world).

Oh no!  Here comes the specific command for Joseph “Take Mary as your wife ( Oh! that stings…. The pregnant Mary. Pregnant by this guy called the Holy Spirit??!) and you will name the Son Jesus.  Wait a minute……..I have to be in this mental turmoil till He is born (Yo! Respected Angel,  I don’t know about you angels but for human beings that’s 9-10 months down the lane bro if you don’t know!)  and name the baby that my wife carries which is not  mine!  Phew……..that’s a lot to ask just because I am good man and all because it is God’s plan and prophecy?!

Joseph had no control over the situation because smart angel came in a dream unlike with Mary who could have a two way conversation and clear all her doubts about her being a virgin and conceiving the Son of God. 

I was born on 24^th and I was jolted to a screeching halt when I hit verse 24 above in Luke chapter 1.  Joseph woke up and did what the angel of the Lord commanded.   No questions. No answers.  Just doing what the Lord commanded through an angel. Phew!  If you are wondering how I am doing as I read this.  I am not breathing.  Stuffed fully with emotion and floored by this righteous human being called Joseph!

Perhaps that why God gave him the honor of naming His son as Jesus – the name above all names , the name to which all knees will one day bow down. 

I think,  I, Josephine was not like Joseph.  Far from it.  I clearly knew who I was and what I wanted out of life.  Even when I left from a decade of life in America to India I knew exactly where I wanted to work and how my life would pan out from there.  Unfortunately I got the job only 8 months later and just few days into joining I had this strange request from a girl who was a distant relative of my brother’s wife.  She needed to become a respiratory therapist and the university I just joined was one of the few that offered the course.  But there was a  big problem.  The admissions were already underway and she never even applied before the deadline.  Very reluctantly I put forth her request to the administration as I was new myself and by God’s grace she got qualified for the few allotted seats.  She came from a lower than average family and her father had sent a major chunk of his savings for her tuition fee.  When we approached the fee counter, I realized she was short by a third of the total.  God stirred  in me a  desire to sow a seed for this shy, young girl from a village in a Kerala starting off in this big flamboyant city of Chennai away from her family and friends. 

Having paid the fee, I dropped her off at the hostel which was on campus worried how she is going to go through this rigorous course as she did not know Tamil which is local language and was hardly fluent in English either.  After my day’s work I drove to the hostel to check on her and found her teary eyed standing outside the hostel mess.  I soon learned that another chunk sum of money had to be paid for the entire month even to start off with a meal that night. Sometimes your heart wants to do something because it’s your nature, being empathetic and good.  Though it is in your blood it also helps to have it  in your bank, I mean ,  the money you want to bless someone with.  Now remember I had been out of a job for 8 months and had exhausted all my resources and was thankful for the new job. I had started working but had not yet got paid my first month salary.  But when there is will there is a way, right and we got through that hurdle and I was happy and fulfilled when I drove away from campus that day.  For the next 4 years I would often visit her after work, check on her, get her some snacks or coffee and soon was happy to note that she was adjusting to the city of Chennai, learning the  local language, found a church to go to and even visit  Marina beach with her friends.  She also aced her classes and was doing well in her annual exams.

  One fine day I got a photo of her on Whatsapp telling me that it was taken on her graduation function.  Time stood still for a moment before I could comprehend.  I didn’t know whether to be happy or drown in the thousand questions I had.  When did you graduate?  Where was the graduation ceremony? Why didnt you tell me the good news?  Why wasn’t I a part of your grand moment? I saw her jewellery was matching her saree in which she looked gorgeous but  I confess the thought crossed my mind – If you planned so much in detail for the graduation and went shopping to get matching outfit, did I not cross your mind at all?   I was happy but I was hurt.  So hurt I couldn’t function for days. Felt like a fool. Felt betrayed. Like a worm wanting to crawl back to a hole. Anger. Resentment. Tears. Betrayal. Doubt.  Analytical.  Didn’t want to type back “Congratulations!” I just couldn’t .

She used to call me ‘Aundy’ in her Mallu accent and that used to send a giggle inside of me. Almost saw her as my daughter.  Well I didn’t want to help anyone else anymore.  What a cost to pay for being good? I don’t deserve this treatment, I thought.

Goodness has be reciprocated with gratitude.  Isn’t it?  Isn’t that the norm?   How can all these benevolent acts go unnoticed? Even to the person who is the recipient. Worse still when benevolence gets tallied against the money in your bank account and projected to your net worth instead of recognizing the simple love and affection with which it was bestowed.  Nothing else. Just plain old love from one human being to another. Being a human basically.   She had got a new job and had joined and received her first paycheck too, I believe.  I just wanted to know – that’s all – to share the happiness and victory.   

Just then the phone rang.  It was her. Should I pick up or ignore? I can choose now. Wisely.  Go with my mind than my heart, right?   I can be who I am in the core of being or change because of the others behavior toward me.  It was obvious she had changed. I had an option to change.  If you keep on changing your core values based on how people treat you, I realized I might become someone else I don’t recognize.  I would not be the original “Me”.

Thank God, for the revelation.   I knew who I was.  I know who my Father was and is and I know His heart for His people. When you know you are royalty in your lineage you don’t wait around a trivial thank you’s and gratitudes.  I was only a channel for what he wanted to do in this girl’s life.  How can I take credit? All I have is His.  I could be a blessing to her,  because He blessed me first.  Seventy times seven is his rule of thumb in His kingdom for forgiving someone.  Tall order.  Yeah! It is hard.  It is hard to be good.  It is hard to be His daughter or His son in this world.   Be good because your God is good. Period.

It hard to be insignificant.  It is hard to know that you are not listed in the lineage as the father of the Savior when you did all you could as a worldly father to protect Him and his mother from the evil  Pharaohs  and Kings who wanted to kill.  When you know who you are and more importantly whose you are, you don’t operate on your wish and will.  You do it because you were commanded by the Lord whom you love and believe.  You are just a tiny screw that holds His Kingdom plan, designed for  ages and generations  of humanity, before and after you. Here is the irony.  The Lord needs you because you are Chosen as His very own. Royalty runs through you because You were bought with a price on the cross.  You count in His Sovereign eye. Yet he gives you free will to take part in his work. The choice is yours.  Your reward is not of this world but from Him who rules over the Heavens and the Earth.  

‘Hello Aunty”, she said as I picked up the call smiling because it was not “Aundy” anymore.  I was smiling not because she had changed.  I had. This time I was proud of me.  After all, my middle name was supposed to be “Josephine”, isn’t it?      🙂

Related versus from the Bible:

Galatians 6:9

 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Proverbs 23:24

The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice,
And he who begets a wise child will delight in him.