Three Wise Men

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        Three men bore gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to a stable beneath the Bethlehem sky. They knocked urgently. Mary, picture-perfect holding her baby, motioned to Joseph to let them in. The men smelled of camel’s hair, body odor and lentils. They wordlessly placed their gifts before the baby, murmuring words in their own tongue. 

Mary thanked them with a smile, and they left in terror. Their gifts appeared like the gifts offered by the ancient Greeks to appease pagan gods. If these rich men were that scared, Joseph felt he should be too.

“Let’s go,” he said to Mary. Her face said she needed more convincing. "I dreamed of this moment."

She looked at him and, for once, complied. He strapped the saddle on the donkey as Mary nursed the boy. Joseph wanted to kill him, and he hated himself for feeling that way. He thought of Moses smacking bare rock with his magic staff in frustration. Relatable. He grunted at himself in disgust.

“What?” asked Mary. 

Joseph just kept moving forward, head bowed in shame. 

“It’s just the craziness of this situation,” he lied. “We go to Bethlehem for a day and don’t even have time to see my relatives.”

“I know,” said Mary. “But if your dreams are telling you we need to leave, then we need to leave.”

“Of course,” said Joseph. Dreams. One of my necessary lies, he reminded himself. He tightened his grip on the saddle strap. He remembered the way Mary had charmed him in Nazareth. Lately with all her distance, she felt more like a friend, like she had before he’d ever approached her with that stupid line, “Where do you draw water?” She’d looked at him with that sideways smile that gripped him. And she’d shown him that well with the cracked edges. He’d drawn water with her and she sang as she pulled the rope. Her song was free, her voice angelic. He felt like abandoning his Judaism to sleep with her then and there. Lust brushed aside, he went back to that peaceful place in his mind where he felt safe. That space, devoid of sin.

        Mary brings out the best in me, he thought. 

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