Josephs Relief
In Keeping with my practice over the Last Two Years of giving Fictional Christmas Stories, I present to you Josephs Delight — a story not written from the perspective of Joseph the father of Jesus but Joseph the owner of the Inn where Christ was born. Joseph is the father of Sara who I wrote about 3 years ago. Merry Christmas.
Read Sara’s Joy (2016), Hosea’s Adventure (2017), Jothams Once in a Lifetime Performance (2018)
Joseph of Bethlehem heaved a heavy sigh as he sat down for the first time in hours. This was one of his worst days on the job yet full of stress and work. It didn’t help that he underestimated the work and had only his daughter and two neighbours for help.
When Joseph moved back home to Bethlehem six years ago to start his Inn, he didn’t expect volume and a lot of lodgers. He expected to run a little business and have time to attend to other things like animal rearing and fishing. So far, his predictions had come through until the last two days.
Ceaser Augustus had issued a royal degree demanding everybody went back to their hometown for a census some months ago. Joseph had left Bethlehem initially at 11 years of age and came back only 6 years ago at 23 when he lost his wife. Based on his distant memory he assumed Bethlehem was a very small town (which it was) with few people and even fewer in the diaspora (outside Bethlehem) so he only expected to have a full Inn at worst — he expected that the Inns would be sufficient to house the few who didn’t have family to stay with. But apparently, he was wrong. He had worked all day to lodge travellers into all the 10 rooms in his inn and attend to their needs.
So far, he had made about five trips into the nearby city to fetch supplies and food items to cater for his teeming population.
Joseph sighed again as memories of Ruth rushed to the fore of his mind. He missed her every day. It had been 6 years and he had thought the pain would leave but it hadn’t. Every Day he missed her afresh and the fact that Sara grew to look more like her everyday didn’t help. For the first two years of his being back in Bethlehem, his parents had tried to convince him without success to get married again — they had even brought women to his attention but Joseph couldn’t bring himself to move on.
Just then a knock on the front door sounded. Joseph let out a groan. He was tired of telling people there was no room anymore. He opened the door and was met by a man with a woman who he assumed was his wife on a donkey. From the protruded belly he could deduce that she was heavily pregnant. The way Joseph spoke frantically confirmed his theory — this was a man under pressure and yes, his wife was at the point of delivery.
Joseph began to wrack his brain looking for the most diplomatic way to tell them there was no room. It had been easier with other travellers but this was an emergency situation — a man and a woman in labour and to add to that the man’s name was Joseph too. Joseph instantly wished Ruth was here. Back when they owned an Inn in Jerusalem, she was the life of the place. She knew how to handle every situation perfectly. She would have known what to say.
Joseph told the man there was no room but he kept pleading. He sighed to himself and was about to close the door when Sara rushed out.
“Papa she’s going to have a baby”
Joseph looked at Sara. She had won him over. Ruth had died 6 years ago trying to deliver Sara in less than ideal conditions and it would break his heart to see that happen to someone else. But his hands were actually tied and he knew there was no other Inn that still had space — Joseph and Mary must have visited all the others first because he’s was at the edge of the town.
“But Sara there’s no space” Joseph retorted
“We could make hay beds for them in the Stable! Its late and almost impossible to find an inn!”
Joseph smiled to himself for a second. Typical of Sara to think everything in her imagination was possible but his smile disappeared as soon as Joseph the traveller answered him. Apparently, he was so desperate he wanted the stable offer.
There was no way out. Joseph led the couple to the stable and tried to create a place conducive for a human delivery. Joseph rushed to his room and got his own mat and brought back to the stable. Sara did what she could to feel useful. She was very excited — this was what brought her joy helping people just like her mama — Joseph smiled at Sara.
Mary — the wife of the traveller Joseph moaned and Joseph knew it was time. One piece of information he kept away from the travellers to dissuade them was that could function as a midwife. After losing Ruth one of the things he did was to get basic training in delivering babies so he won’t ever suffer the misfortune of losing a wife to labour. Joseph set to work immediately pacifying Mary and urging her to push out her baby.
As soon as the baby came out a flash of light temporarily blinded Joseph for some seconds and immediately what felt like a huge load was lifted off his heart and mind. He felt so relieved he almost stumbled backwards. Joseph safely delivered the baby and cut off the placenta then he handed him over to his father Joseph. Joseph looked directly at the baby and said his name was Jesus. Jesus — that meant Saviour.
Joseph savoured the moment. Joseph and Mary holding their new-born and he felt a joy he couldn’t explain in his heart. A joy that he last felt when Ruth went into labour 6 years ago and he was excited about being a father. From the light that flashed when he delivered the baby to the Joy, he was feeling something told Joseph this babe wasn’t normal and something beyond the ordinary was happening.
Hours later as Joseph prepared to sleep, he couldn’t put his feelings into words. In that night alone Wise Men from the East who he hadn’t seen since he left Jerusalem had come bearing Gold Frankincense and Myrrh gifts fit for a king and called the baby the “King of the Jews”. Shepherds had come narrating how Angels had appeared to them and announced the Birth of a child saviour. The events of the night were just too mind boggling.
As Joseph slept off two things were paramount in his mind. One was that somehow his 6 years of grieving was gone and replaced with a peace that couldn’t be understood and two the long-awaited Messiah had been born under his watch and he almost missed it. Joseph slipped into unconsciousness convinced that the two were not mutually exclusive.
