merry christmas

For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government shall be on his shoulders
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

-Isaiah 9:6

Christmas Through Their Eyes: Joseph, husband of Mary, Christ’s mother

This has without a doubt been the craziest year of my life. Granted, I haven’t even been alive 20 years, but I seriously doubt any of my future years will outdo this one on the craziness scale.

Things a year ago looked so differently than they do today. Mary and I had just gotten engaged and I was obviously pumped up about marrying her. She was the most amazing, blameless girl that Galilee had ever seen. Then, not long after we became pledged to wed Mary, my virgin (or so I thought) fiancé, turns up pregnant. I absolutely could not believe it. I wasn’t sure how to handle it really. I was tempted to make a big fuss about it and give her a bad name (which at that point I thought she deserved), but I knew I couldn’t do that. I decided instead to just quietly end the engagement, which I figured would bring her the least disgrace. Only our family and close friends would have to know.

Then one night I had this bizarre dream. It was different than my usual weird dreams. It didn’t consist of my flying or trying to run but not being able to move or trying to talk to someone but being unable to speak… it was none of that stuff. This was seriously crazy. Here’s what the angel said:

“Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

And as if that isn’t crazy enough (calling me son of David, speaking specific direction to my life, the fact that the HOLY SPIRIT GOT MY GIRL PREGNANT, and that her baby is going to save people from their sins), I didn’t forget a single word when I woke up. That never happens. It was so out there, and at the same time so clear that it was Yahweh speaking to me. Of course, I knew anybody who I mentioned this dream to would write me off as a nut bag, but nevertheless, I knew it was true.

So needless to say, I decided not to divorce Mary, but instead to stay with her and support her through her pregnancy that I had nothing to do with. The gossip around town was just out of control. It was bad enough that the newly engaged couple that everyone thought was righteous turned out pregnant, and then we could hardly justify ourselves without people thinking we were, again, nut bags. An angel appeared to Mary too. We couldn’t very well justify our virgin pregnancy and our heavenly visitation to most of the church-going people. Anyway…

We endured all the stuff that goes along with being pregnant outside of marriage and “charismatic” in Galilee until we got news of the decree from Caesar that everyone had to go back to their home towns for a census. At that point we were getting closer to Mary having baby Jesus, and I was really hoping that we would at least get to Bethlehem before she went into labor. I didn’t want to think about her having a baby while we were traveling on the donkey…

I’ll opt out of describing the details of our journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, but suffice it to say it was long, and cold, and Mary was, again, very pregnant.

We showed up in Bethlehem pretty late in the evening and quickly learned two things that didn’t go well together: One, there were no places to stay in town, everything was full and, two, Mary was less than two hours away from going into labor. So we did what anyone would do in that situation: We went to a barn that was down the road from the inn.

Again, I’ll chose to leave out the details of the whole birthing process for my wife’s sake, but it was still cold, and as any birth is, it was bloody and messy. It was both disgusting and beautiful at the same time. Life is so amazing. If you could ignore the fact that the angel told us that this baby was the Messiah (which I cannot begin to describe out absurd that is… Mary and I are about the least significant people that the world’s ever seen, and the Messiah is going to save people from their sins…) if you could ignore that, then the birth was pretty normal. Perhaps the least crazy part of the whole story.

Then arguably the most random part of this year happened. This group of shepherds had come in from their fields to visit our new baby Jesus and they said that a whole host of angels had told them how they could find us. They also said that the angels had told them that our baby was the Messiah. Out of control. After the shepherds had sat and admired our baby they left and went back into town telling everybody about our kid. I couldn’t imagine what kind of things people were going to think about us in the days to come.

Neither I nor Mary will ever forget the events of that night. I also doubt that any of us will forget what happened a week later when we went to consecrate Jesus at the temple. I’m not going to explain it in detail, but picture two other, older “charismatics” somehow rejoicing the moment we walked in with Jesus. So crazy. Oh, and I use quotes when I say charismatic because it wasn’t like Mary, myself, or these elderly people were weirdo’s or anything, but people probably thought we were.

So thus ended the craziest year of my life; the year that literally changed everything. I still cannot wrap my mind around the whole thing, but the more I write about it the closer I get (I think). So crazy. It really is.

Christmas Through Their Eyes: Justus the Shepherd

Justus, the shepherd, to Joshua, my beloved uncle.

Go ahead and sit down. You’re not going to believe this.

Well it’s been two weeks now since the night everything changed. That’s what I’ve been calling it. I can’t think of a better way to describe it. I mean, that night… well, I guess everything didn’t change. I’m still just a shepherd and all, but that’s fine. The way I view this life changed that night though. Who would say that isn’t a big thing?

It was just a normal winter night, ya know? It was cold, it was late, me and the boys were starting to wrap up our nightly joking around and all the normal stuff when… seriously, you’re not going to believe this… I promise, I’m not making this up. I’m not smart enough to… Joshua, it got bright! I mean, brighter than day-time bright. An ANGEL showed up out there in our field’s sky. Man, I’m not kidding, it was absolutely terrifying. I’ve never been close to being that scared. You would have been too! But just as me and the boys were finishing up screaming and cursing out of fear, that angel said, (I’ll never forget it):

“Do not be afraid.” (Yeah right… too late).

“I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.” (For all the people? Then why aren’t you telling all the people? Do you realize we’re just shepherds? What do you mean for all the people?).

“Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” (WHAT?? The Christ? The Messiah? You decided to tell US about the Messiah? We’re shepherds! The Messiah was born today and we’re going to find him in a stable?? Really?)

So that’s what the angel said, and those are the thoughts that were going through my still kinda freaked out mind when he was saying them. I mean, you couldn’t deny that there was an angel of the Lord up there. The same Lord who’s never spoken to the likes of us… or anyone else in hundreds of years as far as I know. It went against all logic and common sense, but we all knew it to be true.

Well then, as if the one angel and the really bright sky in the middle of the night weren’t enough, I mean, just when that angel was done saying those things, right after he was done, a TON of angels showed up in the already bright sky. If they’d showed up like that at first, I’m serious, I would have died. Literally. Anyway, they showed up and they were all just rejoicing and praising Yahweh saying, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.” And at that point, though I was still very overwhelmed by all that had just taken place in the past 15 minutes, I did feel a great sense of peace. It’s hard to explain.

Well then the night sky went back to how it’s supposed to be: dark. After about 3 minutes of all us boys just standing there staring at the sky in silent awe, we decided to go into Bethlehem town and see this unbelievable event of which we were just told. So we ran, oh man, we were moving, in to town. I felt bad because we were being pretty loud (you’d have been loud too after all that) as we made our way to the manger that the angel told us about. We had a pretty good idea of the particular stable that this baby would be in, and we were right. When we turned the corner and saw that scene: the dad with his arm around his wife who was holding the baby, who, like the angel had said, was wrapped in cloth; all of them were standing on the blood-covered ground… I cannot describe how that moment felt. Like I said, we believed what that angel said was true (who wouldn’t?) but man… tangibly seeing exactly what we’d been told… I know it’s weird to say but I felt close to Yahweh at that moment.

We told the parents (they were named Joseph and Mary) all about how we’d ended up there. We stayed there for a while and marveled at the baby Messiah (his name is Jesus! The parents told us that angels had talked to them too, and the angel told them to name him that!). After we stood and worshiped Yah for that baby, we went back out through town and started telling everybody what we’d been told and what we’d seen that night. Man, those people weren’t very happy to be woken up, but when we told them our story, every one of them was amazed. How could you not be?

Uncle Joshua, I hope you don’t think I’ve lost my mind. I swear every word of this story is true. I hope you live long enough to see the stuff that this Messiah is going to do! Jerusalem is going to be restored! I got to see our King as a baby! I’m still excited about it. I got to see King Jesus on the day he was born! I still can’t get over the fact that Yah decided to send his angels to us. Not to mention that the Messiah was born in Bethlehem… there’s lots about the whole thing I don’t get, but I cannot help but believing. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on all this.

Send Sarah greetings.

Justus

Christmas Through Their Eyes: Mattias the Innkeeper

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, I’ve written a few narratives telling the Christmas story through the eyes of its characters. This is my first attempt at creative writing in a long time, so please, be gracious. That’s all.

I normally would not write a journal entry in the earliest of morning hours, but tonight has been… how do I even describe it? It’s been weird for certain, it’s been inconvenient (see my being awake at this hour), but part of me thinks something about this night is so significant. Well not the night in itself, but the events that have taken place tonight. Man. I’m so scatterbrained. This entry will probably make little sense, but I just have to write for fear of forgetting anything.

Ok. Man. Well I guess the craziness started when I rented out my final room here at the inn. I have Caesar to thank for the boost in customers this month with the census he decreed and all. Unfortunately, once the last room had been rented, the people didn’t stop coming. I had to turn down a fair amount of people from sun-down to past midnight. One of the last couples I turned down is the very reason I’m still awake. I don’t remember their names… the man looked familiar… but his wife was pregnant. Very pregnant. I felt bad that I had no place for them to stay, but there was nothing I could do.

So I fell asleep for what should have been the remainder of the night, but a few hours later (just a little while ago) I heard a group of men bustling down the street outside, talking loudly to one another. I went to the door to see what was happening, fearing that there was a fight or something. By the time I made it to the door though, I only saw the men’s backs; they were heading to the stable down the road. I recognized that the men were shepherds by their clothes, so I figured they were going to the stable to stay. Not the case.

In just over an hour after they first came by to wake the neighborhood up they came back through only this time they were much, much louder. They were knocking on people’s doors (mine included) telling the story of how they’d ended up here tonight. Something about an angel who talked to them out in their fields and told them that a lady was going to have a baby (which is probably true, because that one lady looked like she could have her baby any moment). Well as if the thought of angels coming to tell shepherds ANYTHING isn’t absurd enough, these guys were saying that this woman’s baby was the Messiah… I was amazed. Shortly after they finished telling me and the rest of the street about what had happened, they went on into town doing the same thing. Telling people what they’d seen. I don’t know what to think about all this right now. I’m exhausted. I’ll process all of this more in the morning (it already is morning)… I’ve got to sleep now.