An Inn Keeper's Wife

Had I imagined the whole thing? Light filling the sky and surrounding mother and child…. shepherds kneeling. The Messiah would not come to our inn—surely not to our stable.

Earlier I had heard many strange rumors of angels visiting with prophetic words. I often wondered about the older prophecies my husband told me about. He had talked to learned men at the synagogue. Could we be living in the time of the promised Messiah? It seemed more likely things would go on as they always had. My husband, like his father, owns a small inn and we earn barely enough to care for our family.

However a strange thing happened one night. Late in the day, a couple came to the inn. My husband was turning them away. We were full up that night with all the families coming for the census. But the young woman was with child. I saw weariness in her eyes. But something else, too. Courage? A sense of destiny? I grabbed my husband’s sleeve, “What about the stable?” I whispered. He saw the intensity of my plea and relented. They seemed grateful for our meager offer...a bed with the animals. I asked our servant girl to take them blankets, soup and a little bread. The weariness of the day overtook us both and we closed the inn and went to bed.

Early in the morning I awoke remembering the young woman. I slipped out the door and went to the stable. To my surprise, her child had already been born. Strangely enough there were men near the manger where the swaddled babe lay. They were definitely not from the town. They were shepherds. Why were they here? They said an angel told them to come. And they were kneeling before the mother and child. It was remarkable!

Then I saw something even stranger. A halo of bright light shone around the new mother. Again I remembered the prophecies. Could it be? Could this babe in our stable be the Christ? Standing in the doorway, I saw an unusual brightness across the horizon. Hardly realizing what I was doing, I found myself kneeling in the doorway of our stable, as though before the Christ child and praise rose to my lips for the promise fulfilled—the birth of the Messiah.

Later, the couple left with their child …by night as though afraid of being seen. That morning I walked over to the manger as though I would find there the answer to my questions. It was merely bare weathered wood covered with straw…there was no light. No glory. Doubt rose in my heart. Could it all have really happened?

Our lives go on much as they always did. We work hard and have little material wealth. My husband continues to ask questions at the synagogue. But every now and then I remember the day I knelt in the doorway of the stable believing that I was in the presence of a miracle.