THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS – NO ROOM AT THE INN
The day she told him she was with child, one that could not be his, everything changed. How he wrestled with this news… This girl was trustworthy, honest, pure… The news was so shockingly unexpected, he hardly knew what to do with himself… Until the Angel appeared in a dream… and that sent his world into another spin…
An uncomplicated man of integrity, whose hands showed his love for hard work, a direct decedent of David, of Abraham, a decent, law abiding, synagogue attending man who had dreamed of marrying a lovely uncomplicated woman, living in Nazareth, having children whom he could pass the family business onto… this man decided to heed the voice of an angel, and stay betrothed to a woman who was a carrying a child she claimed to be God’s…
It had been an incredible few months.
The night before last, he knew the baby was coming… She was tired, apprehensive, excited… he was falling in love with her, her pure faith and undeterred heart… She needed a place to rest as quickly as possible and with the coming census, the village was flooded with people. He went first to His families home… full. Then the neighbours house… again, full.
He ran from door to door, knocking, pleading, and at last begging… Her cries grew louder, adrenaline kicked in and he frantically searched for a room, any room, any safe place for a woman to deliver a child…
Finally, the downstairs stable of a humble family home… they would share it livestock, but none of that mattered… he didn’t notice the smell of manure, the scratch of hay upon his legs…
He pulled his betrothed from her mount and lay her in the straw as the grip of birth beat heavily through her body. All he could do was watch, breathe… wait…
Then, silence.
In his mind right now, the night before, the months before, did not exist…
All he had was this moment and the perfect tiny gift that had just been violently and tremendously released from its mother's womb and now lay squirming and bloody in his hands.
His newborn son, breathing his first breath. The world hearing his voice for the first time as a tiny, strong cry.
His son, who was not his son, but completely his son.
As tears of love began to flow down his face, Joseph leaned his head down to touch the temple of his miracle child and breathed his name onto his cheeks…
“Jesus”