Upon discovering Mary's pregnancy, Joseph could have chosen the following options:

He could have exposed it and brought shame and even punishment on Mary or gone ahead with the marriage, but in doing so break the Law which condemned adultery. Or he could have quietly divorced her, which allowed him to show kindness to Mary, and enabled him to satisfy the Law. Rationally, the latter was an option any just and pious Jew would take.

But God wanted Joseph to search deeper within himself, and revealed that which went against all human thinking: the invitation to act as the child's father by giving it the name He had already chosen by placing Jesus in the Davidic line, and putting the child in its proper place in salvation history. And Joseph responded to this invitation totally.

Often we too are confronted with difficult situations. Sometimes it is easy to rationalize our way out of them. But the Lord invites us to go further - to open ourselves to Him so as to discern what He desires of and for us. Rationalising means to project to ourselves what we think is best for the situation! Discernment is opening our hearts to God and allowing Him to reveal what is best. Truly God's ways are not our ways.