Fatherhood

Fatherhood
Matthew 1:20-25

The problem was that I believed her. Even before that guy showed up,
knowing all the whys and wherefores of our troubles. Telling me he was the same one
who visited Mary in the first place. I resisted the urge to punch him.
We were so happy before he showed up in a flurry of wings and full of glad tidings.
The trouble came later, when I began to worry about the baby. What if he glowed?
Or was born speaking? What would he have to say to other children?
What could you teach a boy who was supposed to be your son
but also, somehow, your savior? Certainly not how to catch a ball,
to say nothing of building a table or talking to girls.
I worried even more about what it would do to Mary—what would I do
With a savior-baby who killed her in childbirth? What if he caught
pneumonia and died? Or skinned his knees while running around the kitchen
But what concerned me most, what woke me in a panic late at night
was worry that this baby might change the way we were with one another.
And he did.