“Mary! We have been married only, uh, less than a month! And you are going to leave me for three months? You cannot be serious!”
“Elizabeth needs me. She is not young. And when I was a
child Elizabeth was my closest and dearest friend. Joseph, women her age do not
bear children. She needs my help.”
“Mary, this is pure madness.”
“Joseph, I must do it.”
“You must not, you may not, you cannot, and you will not.”
Mary folded her arms in a gesture of defiance, her lower lip
protruding ever so slightly but quite firmly.
There was a moment’s pause as two wills jousted in silence.
“All right, go help her. But not three months, Mary. I am a
working man! From dawn to dark I work. Six days a week, all year long. I need your
help, to cook, to clean, to be with me. Mary, not three months! You cannot be gone
that long.”
“Joseph, son of Matthan, I must stay with Elizabeth, until
the day her baby is born. I will.”
“And that is another thing, Mary, daughter of Heli, stubborn,
strong willed Heli, I am quick to add! You do not need to be going half a
country away to look after someone you have not seen in years. You need someone
to look after you. But oh, no, you are going to trek from here to Judea, alone,
on foot, to help someone else have her baby. Well, who is going to take care of
you? And who is going to take care of me?”
Joseph paused, then marshalling even higher logic,
continued.
“And furthermore, Elizabeth and Zachariah live in the hill
country. What you are proposing is a long, hard journey. Those hills go almost
straight up, and the roads in that region are dangerous. In fact, that whole
area is dangerous. There are more robbers in those hills than anywhere else in
Judea. No one in your condition has any business out there in that kind of
country.”
There was a long
silence. Then Mary spoke, this time soft and low.
“I do not fully understand what has happened to me, Joseph. But
I am certain an angel appeared to me, I am certain an angel spoke to you. And you,
Joseph, dear husband, so quickly came and married me, which has meant everything
to me. Beyond that, there is so little I understand. But this I do know. A child
is growing in my belly. I do not fully know who he is, but he is not from this planet.
He is from another world. He is from God himself. I dare not even say what it
was the angel called him.
“And now this letter, coming from Elizabeth, confirming the words
of the angel. Impossible as it is, Elizabeth also has a man-child growing in
her womb. Both of these children have been conceived in strange and mysterious
ways. Their births, and their lives here on this earth, are inseparably linked,
that I know. And this I also know, I am supposed to go to Elizabeth. And I will.
As to dangers, a God who can cause a virgin to conceive can also protect her
from hills and highwaymen. Besides, Joseph, you know it is customary for a pregnant
woman to seclude herself for a time. Being away in Judea with my pregnant cousin
seems so right for now.”
With that, Mary sat down upon a bench and leaned back against
the wall. Joseph thought that perhaps, just perhaps, he saw a mischievous smile
tugging at the corners of her mouth as she began to speak again.
“And as for you, Jacob Joseph, son of Matthan, stubborn strong-willed
Matthan, I might add, you have been taking care of yourself, cooking your own meals,
cleaning your house, and tending to your needs long before you met me”
Joseph breathed a long, slow sigh and relaxed his taut shoulders.
Against his will, a slight smile danced across his face.
“Mary, daughter of Heli, I just want you to know that there was
never a day in the life of Matthan when he was as stubborn, headstrong or as good
at winning an argument as was Heli.”
As the eyes of the young couple met, Joseph could no longer keep
the smile blooming on his face. Mary, the woman who both baffled and delighted him,
smiled back. Then she leaned over, stifled a giggle, suddenly sat up straight, clapped
her hands together and said, “Isn’t love wonderful!”
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