Children of Bethlehem - Child of Bethlehem

CHILDREN OF BETHLEHEM

CHILD OF BETHLEHEM

By Robert Allen

^“ When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.”

Luke 2:17-18

A monolog for a pre-teen girl.

            Did you hear them?  Did you see them?  Did they come by your place? My brother and I were playing out in the yard when they came.  Mother and father came out of the house to see what all the ruckus was about and so we heard everything.

            I was so excited!  Here were our neighbors, Ebenezer and Jacob and Ethan, telling us how they had seen angels.  Angels!  Can you just imagine?  Why, we’ve known these men all our lives.  We sit in the market with their children when they sell wool.  In fact, Jacob’s daughter Isobel is my best friend.  And her father saw an angel.  No wonder they were running through the streets of Bethlehem telling everyone what they had seen.

            And the angels weren’t even the best part of the story.  Did you hear about the baby?  The angels said he was the Messiah.  How many times have we set out an empty chair during the Passover meal so there would be a place for the Messiah to sit when he returns?  How many times have you heard the scribes read about him from the prophets?  To think that he has been born right here in Bethlehem.  In our own town.  In our back yard. 

            I wanted to follow them right back to the stable where they said he was sleeping.  What a chance, to actually see the Messiah.  But mother and father said no.  Can you believe that?  They said no.  I couldn’t believe it either.  I pleaded with them to let me go. 

“Isobel’s father will take good care of me.  It’s just on the other side of town.  You could come too.  Don’t you want to see the Messiah?”

But nothing I said could change their minds.

“No one has seen an angel for more than four hundred years,” said father.

“But didn’t you hear them?” I begged.  “These are your neighbors.  Would Jacob and Ethan lie to us?”

Father shrugged.  “I’m sure they saw something.  But I don’t think it was an angel.  Probably just the fire from another shepherd’s camp reflecting off the clouds.”

“It was an amazing story,” mother added in her quiet voice.  “But we really shouldn’t get too excited.  People have been claiming to be the Messiah for years.  Besides, why would he come as a baby.  What we really need is a king.”

“But mother,” I started to argue once again until father cut me off.

“No more!  You are not going across town to see a baby, and that’s final.”

He’s so close.   Right here in Bethlehem.  And I do believe the shepherds, even if mother and father don’t.  The Messiah has come—to our neighborhood, and I can’t even walk over a few blocks to see him.

Do you think your parents will allow you to go?  Will you come back and tell me what he looks like?  Will you?  Please!