On Bethlehem Road Part I

Perhaps the night was especially dark and the arid desert wind blew cold as the Christmas Couple worked their way along the road to Bethlehem.  I suspect that their conversation was sparse; my guess is that the clatter that 21st century westerners' call conversation would not fit well among the early middle-easterners.

With the extreme conditions and the harshness of the journey, I suppose it would do one good to redirect their thoughts away from the surroundings.  Like the pilgrims in The Canterbury Tales,  Mary and Joseph possibly focused on stories.

The road to Bethlehem certainly was a place of origin for many stories; in fact, it was likely along that very road, on just such a moonless night, another woman traveled with her husband - she too was in the throes of an imminent delivery.

Her story was somewhat different from Mary's, in that she had borne children . . . well she had one child . . . and many years of conflict stood between that boy and the one she hoped to soon deliver.  The woman had spent her days struggling for the attention and affection of the man with whom she traveled.  From the time that she had met him at a well near her home, he owned her heart.  When he learned they were distant relatives, this wayfaring stranger wept as he kissed her.

Jacob had loved her so much that in spite of the constant intrigue of her father, he patiently indentured himself for fourteen years of hard work - just to win her hand in marriage.

In a polygamist society, she found herself in constant competition with her sister -who was also married to Jacob - in a duel to bear children.  The feat had taken it's toll on her and though she felt triumphant in the fact that she was again pregnant, but the Bethlehem Road was revealing just how fragile her life was.

On just such a night, Rachel died at Bethlehem. As grace would have it, her child was born safely and Jacob named the boy Benjamin. . . a bittersweet night for Jacob along the Bethlehem Road.

What a poignant moment for Jacob, a man that was returning from a journey of renewal - rediscovering his bond with Almighty God - now he must embrace the shovel to dig a grave for the woman he truly loved, and also begin the responsibility of rearing a new baby boy.

An old prophet would bring the realization of a similar bitter sweetness to Mary as he foretold that her very soul that was enraptured at by this Child's birth, would be pierced through someday as He died.