The baby had not had to sleep in the feedbox for long. The day after he was born Joseph had gone out to find wood, and set to work making a crib for the child. It was simple, but with beautifully smoothed and shaped sides and supports. The baby got a safe place to sleep, and the animals got their manger back.
Joseph was a good carpenter, and had quickly begun to find work in Bethlehem, helped by word of mouth once all the baby’s visitors saw the crib. They stayed as lodgers with Ruth and her mother, and Mary helped out around the house, as well as looking after her child. Ruth often played with him as he grew, giving his mother time to wash clothes or go to market. She and Mary were good friends, and as Ruth grew she began to think about when she might be a mother herself, and what it would be like to have a child. There was always that hint of sadness in Mary’s eyes, behind the joy, when she looked at her child; an anxiety when he had rolled close to the fire, or crawled out of her sight, and a joy mixed with relief when he was caught up into her arms again. They didn’t speak of it much, but Ruth knew that all the events surrounding the child’s birth were stored up in his mother’s heart.
It wasn’t long before the child had outgrown the crib, and was toddling around and falling over everything. Ruth’s mother asked Joseph one day if he had any plans for the crib. “My elder daughter’s expecting, and it seems a shame for such a good piece of work to go to waste,” she said. Joseph was only too glad to give it to her.
Miriam’s child was born. Ruth and her mother were both there to to help with the birth, and Ruth was proud that she could look like she knew what to do- as if she had seen dozens of babies being born. Ruth’s mother and Miriam’s mother-in-law were united in complaining that it wasn’t a boy. “But you have to take what you’re given, I suppose,” her mother said, watching the sturdy little Jesus tumbling around the floor with a regretful sigh. Next to him Miriam’s little Rachel looked tiny.
One evening when little Rachel was about six months old, Ruth went as usual to collect water. Joshua the shepherd was waiting for her outside, and shyly offered to carry her bucket. Ruth refused, but let him accompany her to the well. As they talked, she looked up at the sky. It was a cloudy night, and most stars were hidden, but a few peeked through, and one in particular was more obvious than the rest.
“That bright star looks even nearer tonight,” she said. Joshua looked up.
“It’s odd, isn’t it? When I’m out at night in the fields you can see the whole sky, and I’m sure that star wasn’t there until a few months ago. And it seems to move in a different way to all the rest.”
“When I first saw it, it was much further away,” Ruth said. “Now it’s practically overhead.”
“Some of the older shepherds think it’s a bad omen,” Joshua said. “They say something evil is going to happen. Others just think we’re all seeing things, and there’s nothing odd about it.”
“What do you think?” Ruth asked.
He shrugged. “Don’t know.”
*****
Joshua carried the water home for her, and said goodbye at the entrance to the courtyard. Just before she went in she looked up again at the star, directly overhead. There was something about it that reminded her of a feeling she had felt before, the night Jesus was born and the shepherds visited, of darkness and light, joy and pain mixed together.
She went inside to find Joseph and Mary talking about returning to their hometown. Ruth’s mother was dismissive. “Nazareth! What is there in Nazareth that you haven’t got here?”
“There are family there who haven’t seen little Jesus yet,” Joseph said, with a sideways glance at Mary, who was sorting their clothes for washing.
“It may be difficult at first,” Mary said, looking back at him. “But it has to be faced sometime.”
*****
The next day Ruth and Mary were alone doing the washing. Ruth asked, “Why did you say that it will be difficult to go back to your family? I would have thought they would have been happy to see you again, and especially Jesus.”
Mary kept her eyes on the washing. “It’s a little hard to explain. Believe me, Ruth, I have done nothing wrong, but...others do not believe that. Jesus is our child, but he is not Joseph’s son.”
Ruth stared. Mary had always seemed so good and, well, religious. Her faith in God was evident. The idea that she had sinned by conceiving a child outside marriage was unthinkable. Now it made sense that going back to Nazareth would be difficult. And she had been staying with them for months! If Ruth’s mother found out, she would not be happy. She would say it brought disgrace on her house and family.
Mary could see what Ruth was thinking. “It’s not like that,” she said. “Jesus is a- special baby. An angel visited me, and told me I would have a child, and that he- he would be the son of God. He said the power of the Most High would overshadow me. I didn’t really understand what he meant by that, but, well, before long I found I was pregnant. ”
“What did Joseph say?” Ruth asked.
“He didn’t believe me at first. But then an angel visited him too. He told him what the baby would be called, and what he would do- that he would save us all from our sins. After that he believed me, and we were married. It has been hard for him too- his family did not understand why he still chose to marry me when he knew that I was pregnant, and that the child was not his. No one believed that I had not been unfaithful to him, even my own family. It was hard. But the angel said God would be with me- with us- and he has been. You and your mother have been very kind to us. Do you believe me?”
Ruth thought about all that had happened when Jesus was born, the visit of the shepherds and what they had said. She had met Joshua, the young shepherd, a few times on her journeys to the well, and he had told her more about the angels’ visit. Most people in the village had dismissed it as some sort of hallucination, probably due to some kind of mushrooms in their supper stew. But Ruth had seen their faces when they arrived to see the baby.
“I believe you,” she said to Mary.
Mary’s face suddenly lit up in a smile. “Thank you,” she said.
