They are just well, just kids, teenagers. Imagine how incredibly difficult
their lives have become since that vision.
They are just well, just kids, teenagers. Imagine how incredibly difficult
their lives have become since that vision.
He is a day laborer and days are tough. Besides eking through a hardscrabble
existence, he has to pay all those taxes. And now, he discovers his fiancee
is expecting a baby and they have never been together.
An angel appeared explaining the pregnancy to him and his fiancee, but they
were private audiences. People talk, even good people, church people. O, sure,
they can tell about the angel, but that just seems to compound and complicate
the talk.
At the time she should be resting for the delivery of her baby, word comes
from the government that they have to travel from the north part of the country
to the south part. And he is a day laborer; if he doesn’t work, he doesn’t
get paid, and things are already tight, real tight. They had been saving to
buy a tiny house, but this trip knocks that out of the picture. Every cent they
have this trip takes.
They get there, and are fortunate to find a man who will let them stay in a
cave with his animals. They are thankful; most people who have arrived in town
are sleeping in less.
The baby comes, right there in that cave.
The first night is wonderful. Incredible. Unbelieveable. But before long, the
governor of the occupying army assesses more taxes and then sends this young
family on a flight for their lives.
They are young. They are from the country. Their small hometown is backwoods.
They are naive, ignorant, provincial. They have known no other life until this
forced trip to the southern part of their land.
And now, they must flee to a foreign country – to Egypt, a cosmopolitan
land of millions of hustling, streetwise people making a living any way they
can, at just about anyone’s expense. This young couple must have “take
advantage of me” written all over them.
A young, naive couple who cannot speak the language of this new country. No
family, no connections, no reference point. They are, well kids, teenagers.
How will they make a living? How will they find a place to live? How will they
eat? How will he find a job? How will they care for their baby? How will they…manage,
these kids?
Some suggest the expenses of the trip are paid by the gifts of three astronomers
who visited them from foreign countries. Maybe. But money of any amount makes
them vulnerable targets for the thieves that infest Sinai, and Egypt. How can
an uneducated carpenter have the
savvy to use just enough money to survive without drawing attention to the money
and inviting muggings and murder?
No family. No friends. No place to live. No job. Cannot speak the language.
No one to help with the baby. No one to encourage them. Country folks in the
city. No one to give them direction or advice.
After the dramatic uprooting they experience, there are certainly times they
think, “Since that angel appeared to us, we have had nothing but bad luck.”
Surely there are nights when the couple kneel in prayer, crying out to the
God who led them into this. “God, give us a place to stay. We would be
happy with that cave the man let us use the night the child you sent us was
born. God, give us food to eat. We are hungry. Just give us enough to make it
through this day. God, give us a job. Our money is gone. Just give us a job
that pays enough to feed us and our baby. God, give us friends. We are so lonely.
We know no one here. We are so lonely and tired. God, let us return home soon.
We miss our family and friends so much. We miss home. God, help us be with us.
Please help us as we care for our child. Protect this child you have given us.
We love this child and we are so thankful for him, and for your protection through
all of this. God, give us the strength for another day to do your will.”
Joseph and Mary could not have known the birth of the baby would mean all of
this. They simply could not have known.
And we cannot know all that Christmas will mean to us, if we say, “Yes,”
to the calls it inevitably makes. We just do not know. But without Christmas,
we are lost anyway. Just say “Yes” to Christmas.