SUCH a sweet couple

Such a sweet couple...I won't forget them, that is sure! I wonder about them...I saw them last
before .  .  .
well .   .   .

before the slaughter.

 I wasn't there when they came. So much to do with the travelers and the Romans in and out. And Eli -- I could not believe! He put them in the stable!!!!
Said he didn't even see she was with child ~ the LUNK!! He thought they looked tired, and just as he was about to turn them away, he thought of the stable.
HUH! He could have put those camel drivers in the stable...how could he not have seen??

 It was in the night...a funny night it was...it had been cold and drear all the week, but that night the stars shone so it look almost like day. And there was music in the night ~ Eli said it was a dream, but I heard it clear as clear ... even above his snoring!

It was in the night I found out about them  --  after the music  .  .  .
a commotion in the yard,
     yammering and talking
              the baaing of sheep. "oy! and what now??"

Thinking it was some rabble too full of drink, we went, Eli and I, to tell them to clear off. It was as we walked to the stable that he told me of the couple.
"A girl, and her husband...in the stable, Eli, the stable?!!!!!?? And what was in your head?!!?"

As we got to the door, the noise had stopped. There, in the doorway and all around, were shepherds kneeling with tears dripping from their beards. In the fire light inside we could see the girl and her baby, her sweet voice singing to him as he slept ~ as babies will on their first night. Her husband, seeing us, came and ah, so humbly begged some water and perhaps a blanket if we could spare.

 "Aye, sure, but you'll not be sleeping here.  --  Eli, rouse those camel drivers...they'll not know the difference. Get them out here, and clean the room. Wake Sarah, get her to help  you...they'll have left the room a filth, to be sure  .  .  .

Why?" I asked the young husband, "Why did you not come for me when the baby came?"

"It was so fast, and ~ and, well I didn't know... and I didn't want to disturb you all. Your husband was so kind to give us shelter with all the streets so full"

"KIND!? He should have seen. -- How could you not have seen, Eli? -- but come. You there, move the lambs. Get back!! -- Ah, there, my sweet. Come inside. The fire will yet be warm. What is your name?"

"It's Mary." she whispered. She was trembling.

"Eli, hurry! Is the room ready? -- come I will hold him while you walk inside."
But her husband was there before I could lift the child from her lap. He took him and held him and helped his little wife rise.

"Joseph, I am ok. I can walk, I think. And he is strong -- see how he grips your finger. Isn't his face so sweet?!"

This Joseph, such a man  ~ so strong and tall,
but he looked ... he looked like a little boy, his face still full of tenderness and fright.
"Ah, Mary. I was so afraid. I am sorry. You should have had your mother, your aunts...your home..."

And so I went before them, clearing their path of the gaggle of shepherds, gawking like they'd never seen a babe. As we walked by, I heard them whisper of angels and music....

"Music?  I thought I heard...Did you hear it too?"

"Hear it?!? They sang to us -- that's why we came."

"They?"

"The angels! They said we'd find him here, wrapped in swaddling." Their voices dropped to whispers, "said he is our Savior, ... our messiah."


"Messiah?
but...
would God??...no!
here?
My stable???
Angels? you said  . . .  angels?"