"She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."  
{Matthew 1:21}

 Joseph must have thought that his ears were not hearing what the angel said. "You mean, this child will be the long awaited Messiah?" I can't imagine the expression on his face! Thousands of years have gone by, and I get to be the one to raise the Savior of the world? He will be thought of as my son? I think he probably thought about this for a minute, and then ran to find Mary.

"Mary needs to know that I believe her now. She must know that I will not divorce her, and that we can be safe because God is with us."Peace must have filled his heart, as well as excitement for the life that would be ahead. What a miracle, he might have thought as joy and exuberance flooded his soul. If anyone but an angel told him this story, he wouldn't have believed. Would you have believed Mary?

I don't see how I could say that I would believe such a thing. This was the first move of God in 400 years. The time between the old and new testament was 400 years of silence. God did not speak through a prophet, or do any miracles. Maybe Mary and Joseph were so hungry to see God, and to know him, that their faith was just in the right place to believe. 

Perhaps anyone else would have shuttered in  fear. I think God prepared Mary and Joseph long before this time and of course God knew before each was born the importance of their lives. These parents were ordinary people like you and I. No one would have pointed to one of them as a future leader. Thankfully God doesn't look on the outside, but at the heart.