After calling several of her friends excitedly to tell her news and getting nothing but answering machines, she's pretty excited to finally reach a live person and I picture the conversation as going something like this:
"Oh dear, now I don't remember why I called. Oh yes! I wanted to tell you about all the excitement around here last night. Just wait til you hear! The most amazing thing happened! Well .. as you know, all the inns around here have been filled up for days because of everyone having to come back and register for that new tax law. Yesterday, we were closing up early because we had just rented out our last room for the evening when this couple came in looking for a place to stay. Well, Samuel told them we were full but the man said his wife was about to give birth and they'd already been turned away everywhere else. So Samuel told them they could stay in the stable if they wanted. But you know me, I made sure a bill was made out and put in the drawer .... and I charged them full rate too! But that's not what I called to tell you.
Sometime after we'd all gone to bed and had been asleep for a while, I awoke with this incredibly bright light shining in my face. The shutters were closed but this light was so intense, it shone right through them! I woke Samuel and we went out to see what it was. What's that?
Of course he was scared!
But I had him by the tail of his nightshirt and he didn't have any choice but to come along. Anyway, when we got outside, the whole sky was ablaze -- by this time we could hear singing and music. It was the most incredible thing I'd ever seen! This bright light was shining right over the stable and, when we got up closer, we could see that the sky was filled with .... Dorcas, are you sitting down? The sky was filled with angels!
No ... I had not been drinking!! Do you want to hear the rest of my story? Now .. where was I? The angels! They were singing the most beautiful music. I couldn't help but think how wonderful some of those songs would sound in the synagogue --- you know, kind of break the monotony of singing the same old songs, Sabbath after Sabbath. Although, old Sister Fishburne probably couldn't get the chords right on that harp of hers. I don't know why they continue to let her keep plunking away on that old thing when Grace's daughter can play so beautifully. Alright, alright .... I was getting to that.
We could hardly get inside for all the camels and donkeys and goats, and what have you. It looked like an entire caravan had stopped right outside our stable doors. Actually, now that I think of it ... that's exactly what happened. A caravan from somewhere back east with three wise men, or kings, or whatever they were. You could tell just by what they left outside they were filthy rich. I mean it! Those camels had finer dresses than anything I've got in my closet!
Anyway, I finally got through and got a good look at them. One of them was just kind of ordinary, nose-in-the-air type, and one was short and dumpy. He couldn't hear very well either and I'm not sure he really knew any more about what was going on than I did. But, Honey, when that tall one turned around and looked right at me, I nearly swooned. That man had some eyes ... let me tell you ... he had some eyes. If he had raised one eyebrow, I'd have had everything I own packed and thrown across his camel in a flash!" (Can't you just see her fanning herself?)
"Oh right ... like you wouldn't! Just let me tell my story.
Remember that couple I told you had stopped by and Samuel had let them stay in the stable? Well, the woman had had the baby sometime during the night ... a little boy. It turns out everyone had come to see the baby! Wise men, angels, even the shepherds had come down off the hills --- and they brought the sheep with them ... of course! You should see my lawn! Let me tell you .. I was taking names! Everyone of those sheep farmers is going to get a bill from my groundskeeper! What a mess!
Oh, and speaking of a mess. We're out there trying to get everybody out of there and trying to get all of the animals calmed back down when here comes the news media! And me still in my nightgown and curlers, with cold cream all over my face! I'm telling you it was a madhouse!
Angels and helicopters everywhere.
And on the ground it was even worse. Reporters running around pushing microphones up in everyone's face ... camels tripping over cords. I thought they'd never get out of there. This place looks like we just closed down a three-ring circus!
Yes .. everything's quiet now. I went and had a look for myself at that new baby. I guess he's cute enough but he didn't look so special to me. Kind of scrawny really. My Jonathan, now that was a pretty baby.
But .... there was something different about his eyes.
He seemed to look me right in the face. I know newborns don't really see very well but this baby looked right into my eyes and ... I don't know .... I just felt kind of weird...
like he knew who I was and everything about me.
Yes, Samuel's really excited about the whole thing. He said one of those guys from the east told him that the birth of this child had been foretold centuries ago and that a special star had guided them to our stable They said this little baby was supposed to be a great king or something like that. He's already called the folks on the west coast about movie rights or some crazy thing. You know Samuel .. anything to make a shekel! He's out there now tearing down that shed. Thinks he's going to make a killing at the market selling pieces of the manger that kid was born in. I mean, really Dorcas .... a hundred years from now what difference is it going to make?
What did they name him? Well, I think they named him Jesus. No ... I've never heard that name before either. Oh well ... what's in a name anyway?
Jesus ... Jesus ... Jesus
there's just something about that Name.
Master ... Savior .... Jesus
like the fragrance after the rain.
Jesus ... Jesus ... Jesus
let all Heaven and Earth proclaim
Kings and kingdoms will all pass away
but there's something about that Name.
