Holidays

Leah's Story

by Anne Adams
12/08/20
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When I’m in a pensive mood, I occasionally ponder the events that occurred that night so long ago. Even today I cannot forget what happened. However, at the time I considered it only a routine delivery of a baby, not unlike the hundreds of babies I’ve delivered here in the Bethlehem community. The only difference was the setting – the dimly lit cave, and the witnesses. The young mother, and her worried and concerned husband were ordinary enough but then there were more as the scruffy and aromatic shepherds appeared. 

Yes, I’ve delivered many babies and as far as I know these infants all grew up to lead ordinary lives. But this infant was different, a reality that I sensed from the beginning.  I often wondered what became of him, and then just recently I heard my friends talking about a traveling rabbi who (they said) healed people, talked about some important things, and refuted the big shots in Jerusalem. Some of my friends went so far as to say the rumor was going around that this man was the Messiah, the Son of God. Certainly an unforgettable man, they said. It got me thinking.  Could this rabbi possibly be the baby I delivered on that night so long ago?  After all, this man and the infant both seemed so unusual and forgettable. Actually, I can’t help thinking that this man couldn’t do all they say he does unless he really was God. And that started the memories again.

It all started that night when the young couple arrived at our inn, the young woman obviously pregnant. It was late when they appeared, but because of the Roman census we were full and could only offer them lodging in the stable.  Habit made me notice her condition and for a moment I wondered if she might later need my help. Yet I thought no more about it until after I had gone to bed.  Until my husband shook me awake.

     “Wake up, Leah!” Jacob told me. “It’s that couple in the stable – the husband just showed up looking for help. Their baby’s coming.”

Since such late night appeals were nothing new I was ready and gathering up what supplies I needed, I immediately set off. I descended the hill behind the inn to the cave where we housed the cow and donkey and once there I paused in the entrance.

The flickering light of my lamp revealed the young woman lying on the straw, her face contorted with pain, and her husband nearby, his eyes visibly round in the dim illumination.  I explained who I was and set to work.

Delivery was quick and easy. I lifted up the baby, cut the cord, and washed and salted him. Then I began to wrap him in the swaddling bands the mother provided. After that as I looked around for somewhere to put him I saw the furrow shaped manger.

I added more straw, and then draping the mother’s cloak over the rough wood trough, I lay the newly bound infant. It was a perfect impromptu cradle.

Just then I heard the sound of footsteps outside the cave and caught the musky odor that preceded the new arrivals.  There was no mistaking who they were.

At first the shepherds stood apologetically in the shadows of the entrance, as they hesitantly explained their presence with a strange story. They described how just a few hours earlier as they camped with their flocks outside Bethlehem the skies above exploded with a heavenly panoply singing and bearing a message. A baby – the Messiah – the Christ - was born in Bethlehem that very night.  They would find him wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger!

Just then the young mother reached over to lift up her small son and as the shepherds saw her they dropped to their knees before him.

A short time later they left, filing out into the night with a garble of gradually fading conversation. However, as I gathered my supplies and prepared to leave I was deep in thought.

The Messiah? In our stable? That was certainly wonderful news! We had been waiting so long!

But then I paused as I remembered how the shepherds described what the angels said. What was it? A baby born that night in Bethlehem wrapped in swaddling cloths and laid in a manger? But how did they know where to come? It could be someone told them about a young couple – the woman pregnant – who had lodged in our stable and since babies were usually wrapped in swaddling clothes that wasn’t distinctive. But what about the manger? I had only just placed the baby there when the shepherds arrived, but the angels had specifically identified the location hours before I did it!  How could that be?

The baby yawned and opened his eyes. Wide. To look directly at me. And as he did I saw in his gaze something I could not explain. It was so different...  He looked right at me – and even into me. There was something indescribable  …indefinable.... it was like I was looking into the eyes of …God.