Time in Bethlehem was growing long.
The first moments after the baby's birth were like magic, only deeper. Like drinking fresh water...only a new kind of water, as if there was an entirely different kind of water more pure and refreshing than any water that had ever been before.
Some time later three men appeared. Foreigners. Mary and Joseph were so overcome that they could hardly be frightened. Nothing could be as wonderfully foreign as the child whose gaze must be more wonderful than that experienced by any other new parent before or since. And yet, these three men and their small but impressive entourage were from lands Mary and Joseph knew little about. And these three men, men of such obvious wealth and wisdom, had come to see their son. This baby too young to speak already brought such joy and wonder to the eyes of shepherds and kings.
But now the days grew long.
Seeing an angel in a dream felt almost normal by comparison, and as Joseph and Mary soberly absorbed his warning to flee to Egypt, reality began to set in. Such a responsibility--to care for the son of God. And already Herod wanted to kill him.
Joseph felt old, not for the first time, but in a new way. He saw a hard road ahead, paved with years of hard work and not a small amount of worry and difficulty. And he felt purpose like never before. He saw an unclear future guided by the crystal-clear wisdom of the Most High--a wisdom he would have to trust through faith. He didn't even know if there were trees for carpentry in Egypt, much less how he would work or feed his family. But after the arrival of this baby boy whom he could barely dare to call his own...now, to Joseph of Nazareth, nothing seemed impossible with God.
