When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. (Matthew 1:24)

The openness of Joseph to Mary and her unborn child reveals an admirable generosity and hospitality of life. When the angel spoke to him, Joseph obeyed, receiving the words of this message as if from God. He obeyed in the moment by swiftly taking Mary into his home and life, but also obeyed perseveringly when, after nine months, he received her child as his own, naming him Jesus.

But it is Joseph’s openness of life —his radically welcoming posture—that strikes me so powerfully today. Joseph did not close off his life to others or to God’s purposes. Instead, in the most tangible of ways and most personal of settings, Joseph makes what is his available to God. What could be considered more definitively “ours” than our household—our intimate relationships, possessions, space, and more? Who does not think in some way of their home life as sacred and protected; a refuge and place of peace from the world outside?

Yet it is precisely this sacredness which becomes the furnace of God’s holy love and presence for Jesus through the openness of Joseph. Joseph welcomes Mary into his home. He names Jesus, thus expressing to his relations and the surrounding town that this child is his. He cares for Mary and raises the child, sanctifying the sacred space of household, intimate relationships and family to God. When shared and opened to others through hospitality, these deep places of our life—our space, our daily lives, and our intimacy—can express the radiance of God’s love and presence.

Like Joseph, may we be open to God with all of who we are and what we have. And in that, may we also be radically welcoming to others. May our homes, our relationships, and the sacred spaces of our lives reflect to others the generosity and hospitality of God.