Marys and Josephs

This is something that came to me the other day while I watched the incredible DVD The Lamb of God.

The Savior’s life began and ended and began with Mary and Joseph.

Beginning
Mary, the mother of Jesus, was the first woman to behold the Son of God in the flesh.

Joseph, the earthly father/guardian of Jesus, was the one who procured the quiet stable for the birth of God’s son.

Ending
Joseph of Arimathaea, a “member of the Sanhedrin who took no part in the crucifixion of our Lord,” was the one who, after the Savior’s death, “had taken the body . . . wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock.”

Mary Magdelene was at the tomb in the morning of the resurrection and was the first woman – first person, in fact – to witness the body and the glory of the resurrected Lord.

Both Marys were first witnesses to the glory and divinity of the Son of God – in the flesh and in the resurrected flesh, while both Josephs took care of the first and last temporal needs of the physical nature of the Savior.