Bethlehem was very crowded. Why had Caesar required the
people to return to their ancestral homes to be counted? Eleazar would have
rather stayed home to do it. To take such a journey in early spring was
especially challenging.
He had been fortunate in his travels. He had gotten the
very last stall in the caravansary. Through the door-less opening in the stall,
he was able to look out on the noisy, smelly courtyard where the animals were
kept, watched over by their owners as they roomed in the stalls around the
perimeter of the courtyard.
As he settled his
belongings in his stall, Eleazar saw one more family enter the courtyward. All
the stalls were full. Where did they expect to stay?
The woman was great with child. It was clear at the very
sight of her that she would deliver the child any day now. But that did not
take Eleazar’s attention to her as much as something else about her. As he
looked on her, there was a spirit about her. There was something special about
her, though he did not understand quite what it was.
The
man with her led the donkey she sat atop into the middle of the courtyard. He
helped her gently down from the donkey. Eleazar watched him look around in
sadness at the fully occupied caravansary. He expected the man to help his wife
back onto the donkey and lead them both back out. Instead, he placed their
belongings down next to their donkey and helped his wife set up camp.
Where
they really going to stay there? How truly desperate they must be, to be
willing to stay in such a dirty place, surrounded by all manner of animals.
Eleazar
saw the husband again as he went to be counted. The lines were long, and each
head of house spent much time waiting in them to report the members of his
family. The man he had seen earlier in the courtyard was in the line next to
him.
“Excuse
me?” Eleazar said to him.
The
man turned his head. “Yes?”
“Are
you the one with the wife who is great with child, staying in the courtyard?”
“I
am Joseph bar Jacob,” he said. “All of the stalls were full.”
“I
am Eleazar bar Isaac. Forgive me for questioning, Joseph bar Jacob. But a
courtyard? With all the animals?”
“I
will stay where I must to protect my family. There are so many wolves out this
time of year, hunting the newborn lambs.”
“About
your family,” Eleazar said. “When I saw you in the caravansary, I couldn’t help
but notice that there was something special about your wife. There was a
special kind of feeling around here.”
“Mary
is indeed a very special woman,” Joseph said. “But even more special is the
child she is carrying.”
“Special
how? Your firstborn?”
“It’s
more than that,” he said, rubbing his forehead. “I’m not sure I could properly
explain it. I’m not sure if I understand it myself.”
Mary
went into labor that night. All of the women in the caravansary did what they
could to help with the deliver. Unable to sleep, Eleazar watched and waited
with Joseph for the birth of the child. A child’s birth should not have been
anything unusual, just another birth. But this one…this one he was strangely
drawn to.
The
child was born that night. It was a son. How fortunate for the parents for
their firstborn to be a son! Finding no other place clean place to lay the
child, they placed him in the manger where they fed the animals. The animals
came over to the feeding trough as one might expect, but they did not attempt
to eat. Instead, they stood before the child, seeming to be bowed before it as
if in reverence. Who was this child?
As
everyone gathered to congratulate the new parents, even though they were
strangers, a group of shepherds arrived in the caravansary well into the night.
Surely they did not expect to stay here as well? But they did not look around
at the stalls, did not try to find a place to stay. Their eyes went straight to
the manger that held the child. They went over to him, and fell down before
him, as if in awe.
They
then told all that would listen what had happened earlier that night. They had
been out in the fields that night around Bethlehem, watching over their flocks.
An angel appeared to them. They were afraid. But then the angel told them that
a Savior was born that night in Bethlehem, and that they would find him in a
manger, just as the child was now. And then there were many more angels,
singing praises unto God, and declaring peace.
Eleazar
listened in awe. A Savior? Could this be the promised Messiah? A child? Born in
the courtyard of a caravansary with a manger for his bed?
The
shepherds departed, and could be heard telling everyone about what they had
seen and heard, of the angels and of the child.
Later,
Eleazar went over to congratulate the new parents and see this child. As he
went over to Joseph and Mary, he was going to say something to them. But he
looked down on the child, he was captivated. There was such a feeling of peace and
calm that came upon him as the child’s eyes met his. Eleazar fell down on his knees before the
child.
“Tell
me of him,” he said to the parents. “You said he was a special child. Is what
the shepherds said true? Is he the promised Messiah?”
Mary
told me what she had seen and heard. That an angel had come to her in the
night, much as one had come to the shepherd. He had told her that she would
bear a son and that his name was to be Jesus. And she said that he would be
called the Son of God.
Eleazar
turned to Joseph in surprise. “But you are the father, are you not?”
Joseph
shook his head. “Mary is a virgin. She has never known a man.”
Eleazar
looked at the child. “But there is a child right there. We all saw him born
from Mary.”
“The
power of God came upon her. That power conceived the child,” Joseph said. “An
angel visited me as well. The angel told me that the child will save us all
from our sins.”
“Then
truly he is the Messiah!” Eleazar said, bowing down to worship the child they
called Jesus.
The
next morning, Eleazar was still there in Bethlehem, having not returned home
yet. He had asked to hear the stories of the angels from Mary and Joseph again.
After they had repeated their stories, he had wanted to hear it yet again, but
he did not want to burden them.
He
hadn’t wanted to come to Bethlehem, but now he did not want to leave. He didn’t
want to leave the child. Bethlehem was still just as crowded, perhaps even more
so than the previous day. But that did not matter to him now. He was grateful
he had come.
For
he had met the child that would be his Savior.
