Strange Story: The Birth of Jesus Part 15 The Caravan

There had been no visitors for some time now, and no new ones were not expected. Everyone in the town of “The House of Bread” who wanted to see the baby had already come.

“Up” had found work in the city and walked there and back every day except the Sabbath. Since he was expected to work from sun up to sun down, he had to leave for work well before daylight and he arrived home well after dusk.

On a day not long after that, something happened to break the routine they had settled into. The child was napping in his newly-made bed with low sideboards; it was crude but sturdy. The lattices of the windows were fully open so that she could hear him if he cried. “Reb” was at her cooking fire outside under the overhang.

There was also a great number of people from town, primarily children, accompanying the caravan on foot. It struck “Reb” that Bethlehem had gone strangely quiet because all of its children were here on the outskirts of town chasing camels!

The caravan stopped in front of the cave-house (Matt 2:11). One of the rich men on a camel spoke to her and asked if her husband was nearby. She said her husband was a builder and had to go to the big city every day for work. He would be home after dusk.

The man on the first camel said, “We have come to see a recently born child who will one day be the king of the Jews. And this is the right house?” He spoke the words as a question, but also as a statement, and while he said it, he was looking straight up into the sky. It was very strange.

She was confused. It would be difficult to answer that this was the right child while in a house that was still more of a cave than a house. She wisely answered, “I will let you decide if this is the right place and the right child. I will simply tell you our story. Please come inside and sit down while I tell it.”

The camels knelt; the wealthy men dismounted, stepped inside the coolness of the cave, took a silent look at the sleeping child, and then seated themselves on rocks carved into chairs. Then she told them of her angelic visitor, of her visit to see her cousin, of “Up’s” decision about her fate, and his own angelic visitor, of their journey here, and the rejection they experienced in both locations. She told them of the shepherds who had also heard from angels, and the stir those shepherds caused in the town after coming to see the baby. She ended by saying, “So you must decide whether to listen to the voices of these humble circumstances or my story of these angelic visitors.”

Their leader responded, “We believe, for we have also been convinced by a supernatural message.”

Then he told her their story.

To navigate to Part 15 of this story click on The Birth of Jesus Part 15 Two Stars.