What a night this has been. People
coming from everywhere, looking for rooms. All because the Romans declared a
census and everybody had to return to his hometown. I’d like to catch the guy
who okayed that. It’s enough to drive a poor innkeeper such as myself crazy.
Well, anyway, my inn is full to
bursting, when along comes this bedraggled looking couple, she on a donkey and
very much pregnant. They want a room. I have to tell them I don’t have any more
rooms to spare. He looks very downcast, thanks me, and turns away into the
night. I kicked myself mentally, but what could I do? I had nothing to offer
them… except… I called to the man and said, “Look, it’s true that I have no
rooms left at the inn, but I do have a stable. I know it’s not much, but it has
plenty of straw, and at least your wife will be somewhat comfortable.” The man
– I later learned his name was Joseph – thanked me, and I led them back to the
stable. They settled down for the night.
Later on, just as I was about turn
in for the night, I heard a commotion out near the stable. It looked as though everybody
and his brother was crowding around the door. I went out to investigate, and
saw shepherds there – I don’t remember how many – looking in something
approaching reverence as they gathered. I asked one of them what brought them
here, and he told me a wild tale about an angel suddenly appearing to them as
they were tending their sheep and announcing to them that the long-foretold
Messiah had been born, and that they were to look for a baby wrapped in
swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.
The Messiah has been born? Could
that really be true? I had to see for myself. I squeezed myself past the throng
in the door, and there was the baby, just as the shepherd had said. A baby boy.
I asked what his name was, and his mother – her name was Mary – replied,
“Jesus.” I am not given to imagination, but I would state before the high
priest’s court that when I first looked down at the baby, he smiled at me. And
that’s when I knew. What the shepherd had told me was no wild tale. It was
true. Our Messiah – our Deliverer – has been born. May Yahweh ever be praised!
