When understanding’s wanting, set your sight
On likenesses, and clues you can procure.
A look at manly men may shed some light
On Joseph’s noble heart and motives pure.
The sensitive, protective sort of man
Will always feel it keenly when his bride
Is seen or judged as somehow lesser than
What he knows her to be from the inside.
A faithful man abandons not his wife,
Whose very honor pleads for him to stay.
Contrarily, he takes delight when life
Demands he stand beside her in the fray.
And so “to put away” we may be sure
Was Joseph’s way to keep his Sweet secure.
The Betrothal of the Virgin , by Sebastián López de Arteaga. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
