Hey.
So, a lot of strange things have been happening.
A lot of things have been happening in the past too.
I'm just a craftsman. Sometimes I'm a carpenter.
Sometimes I'm a stone mason. You do what you have to do, you go where the work
takes you.
I'm in Jerusalem right now,
but normally I spend my time around Bethlehem.
I go back and forth, depending on the job.
The thing is, is that a lot of things have been strange lately, but
they were strange before too.
About 30 years ago, I'm feeling my age now.
I was over in Bethlehem with my wife and the kids.
There were a lot of people that were coming into the city.
They were coming in because there was big census going on.
Taxes, right? It's always taxes.
But as they were coming into the town, there were just too many people. There was nowhere for them to go.
We had some people staying in our place, but they'd already
given us money, they'd already paid for it. So we really couldn't kick them out, but all of a sudden
we see this one family coming in.
Man, his wife, she was very, very pregnant.
The thing is though, is that we really didn't have a place for them to go, but you don't want them just
sitting out in the town square. You don't know what's going to happen.
Well, the only place we could think of was the spot over down in the quarry.
The cave where a bunch of us keep the animals.
I mean, who really wants their pregnant wife to be around a bunch of animals there?
It was nasty, it was smelly. I didn't know what else to do.
And you end up hearing very clearly
when the time came for her to give birth.
The thing is, is that that was already quite a bit to deal with at the time.
But then all of a sudden, you end up seeing a crowd of a bunch of kids
coming in and running into the cave.
And you're just like, what in the world is going on? A bunch of these kids, they looked rough.
Clearly there were a bunch of kids who were out tending sheep.
And they come running in, yelling, the savior, the savior, the savior. And I'm like, great.
There's another prank going on.
And we go over there and try to figure out what's going on.
And they're saying, not just savior, but they're saying messiah.
Okay, that's, I mean, come on. That's a big ask.
Everybody knows about the messiah. But when's he actually going to come?
So I'm over there looking at Joseph and I'm thinking, this guy is also a craftsman too.
I mean, how is this guy supposed to end up being the messiah?
And then I realized after a little while, they weren't talking about the man.
They're talking about the baby, the little wrinkly raisin that was laying there in the feeding trough.
It's like, okay, y'all, this doesn't make any sense.
I mean, number one, okay, the messiah is supposed to be a mystery.
You're not supposed to know where the messiah came from.
I know clearly where the messiah came from.
I saw the pregnant woman. I now see the baby.
Clearly, we know this is not Melchizedek all over again.
And this is a baby. How do you know what this baby is going to do?
How do you know what this baby is going to become?
How do you have any idea?
And frankly, I didn't want to say this.
But talking with Joseph, he kept saying, son of God, I mean, look, dude, okay, I get it.
This is not your baby. All right, we're not going to tell a bunch of other people,
but come on, son of God, look, we'll just keep it hush-hush, okay?
Look, illegitimate child. It's okay. I don't know why.
I get it. You're a really nice guy. You decided to go ahead and marry her.
Okay, that's fine. But look, this is clearly, this couldn't be messiah.
We finally got those shepherd kids out of there, okay?
It was a crazy night. Finally got some rest.
Well, you know, Joseph and Mary, they're still hanging out in Bethlehem.
He's got to get some work. They've got to do some stuff. It's fine.
But you know, it doesn't end there. All right, we get a lot of people that come in and out.
We're not that far from Jerusalem. But like two years later, we end up having a bunch of foreigners
that come in through town and they were just weird looking. I don't even know, okay?
But I think they came from somewhere east of there. I don't know.
They probably came across Jericho or something. But apparently, they were following a star that
was like the King Star and the King Planet and they're like aligning or something.
And then they apparently was wandering in the sky. I don't know. I don't check out the sky all the time.
But apparently, they'd been traveling for two years. They really needed some faster camels.
But they finally get there. But what did they decide to do? Did they go to Bethlehem? No.
They decided to stop in Jerusalem. Why? Because they're trying to find the King.
So where did they go? They go talk to King Herod. Everybody knows he's not actually a king.
We just call him that. It makes him feel better. They decide to say, where's the King?
He's like, I don't know. I haven't had a kid anytime soon. But why don't you tell me where he is?
Good job. So these wise men come over there. I guess they must have been studying some of
the old prophets or something. But they come and they've got gifts for two year old Jesus.
And they are with gold and well, that makes sense. I mean, who doesn't want some gold?
But they got frankincense. I mean, it smells good. But the weirdest part was the myrrh.
Because that's what you usually use for funerals. It just had a kid. I mean, it's kind of a little
morose, don't you think? But there they were. And it turned out it was probably a good idea
that they have brought these things because lo and behold, they end up going somewhere else and
Herod's freaking out trying to find this future king. Well, Joseph and his wife, they run.
And it's a good thing they had some things they could sell because they were gone for a while,
all the way down to Egypt from what I heard. And it see them again for, well, 30 something years.
But the thing is the other day, I ended up seeing Mary coming along. I remember her. I mean, she was
still a young girl back then, but that face, you remember the face. But she's walking along with
this 30 year old guy that apparently is now a rabbi. And then I realize who he is.
And people are flocking to him and they're talking about miracles and teachings and freedom and
everything else. But the problem is, is that when you get too much attention, you get in trouble.
And apparently the Sanhedrin didn't like him very much. I mean, the court people and everything
and the Pharisees and Sadducees and all these people didn't like him and he gets arrested.
But the thing with it though, is that normally, whenever the Sanhedrin convicts somebody,
they're stoning. But they got the Romans involved. And you know what happens when the Romans convict
somebody for death. Now, I didn't know. Okay, look, I didn't, I didn't know. Look, I'm just,
I'm just a craftsman. Okay, I do the work that's there to do. Okay, whatever pays, I do it because
it needs to get done. I need to work. I didn't know who was going to be there. I didn't know
who the stake was for. I didn't know who the cross beam was for. I didn't know. Aren't they all
supposed to just be criminals? And that was just a few days ago. I mean, I didn't, I couldn't look
Mary in the eye. She, if she knew it was me, it's my fault that he was up there. It's, it's my fault.
And the thing is, is that all this going on is that my guilt has just been racking me and I don't
know how to get over it. You know, I had another Joseph friend, apparently he put Jesus afterward
into another cave to bury him. So I decided I was going to go over there and pay my respects,
just hoping Mary wouldn't be there. But you know, it's really, really weird. A lot of weird stuff
happened. There was an earthquake and torn curtains and people supposedly rising from the dead. I
don't know. But when I get there and people are saying he's not here, and I don't know what to
make of that. I don't know. Maybe you don't know what to make of that either. But I really, I really
hope it's actually true. Because here's the thing. If what I did led to him being dead and he still
dead, I don't know how I'm going to face that. But if he's alive, maybe he'd forgive me. If he's alive,
maybe God will forgive me. Because that's the thing about it, is that I remember that little baby
and knowing that he's here and that this is where he ends up, and that I was a part of that.
I need to know he came back to life. Because I need to know that I'm forgiven. Don't you ever know
that feeling? That feeling where you just need to stop and pause and say, would you please tell me
I'm forgiven? But you know the wonderful part about being forgiven is that you can't earn it.
But when it comes out of love, all you have to do for it is just ask. Thanks be to God.