"Soldiers?" Josh repeated.  "Have I brought trouble to this kind carpenter
and his wife too?  Here, Joseph, let me help you put your tools away while
you and Mary go see why the soldiers are here.  No!  That one doesn't go
there!  Never mind.  I'll put everything where it belongs while the two of
you are gone.  Hurry now.  I'll take care of everything before I hide."
 
Joseph smiled at the small ferret, knowing that it would take him forever to
recover all of his tools.  He didn't mind.  The joy and fun that Josh had
brought to the simple home that he had built for himself and his wife more
than made up for the ferret's mischief.
 
He remembered the day when Mary had told him that she was pregnant, not by
him, but by the Spirit of God.
 
"What a troublesome day that was," he thought.  "I wanted to believe her but
the pride in me just couldn't accept it.  I was about to turn her out, to be
judged by the crowds, probably to be stoned to death for adultery.  Josh
kept biting my toes whenever I'd made my mind up to do so.  I'll never
forget it when, later that night, as I lay beside her, trying so deperately
for sleep and oblivion, that Josh sat on my beard and gazed deeply into my
eyes, into my very soul.  It was then that I knew that he and Mary knew so
many things that I did not know.
 
"I'll never forget the day that Josh, this royal creature, began to teach
the joys of life to Mary and me.  He'd lived in the palaces of kings and of
noblemen, for only the rich and powerful were allowed to have such
companions.  Simple people like us were not allowed such things.  Yet,
somehow, Josh grew bored with the trappings of grandeur, stole out of the
palace of Herod the Great, and chose to live with us - and to bring us joy."
 
Josh, growing tired of Joseph's reverie, chomped down hard on the
carpenter's big toe, the left one, that stuck out of the man's ill -fitting
sandal.
 
"Hurry," he said.  "Go and see what the soldiers want.  I really can't be
sure, but I don't think that they are interested in me.  They might be about
a census so Rome can collect more taxes; maybe they aren't.  Remember that
even heathens read the Scriptures and believe - whether they want to or not.
I have a very strong feeling that the soldiers are much more interested in
the Baby that your wife is carrying."
 
To be continued...
 
Joy to the World!
[Posted in FML issue 1772]