Years later, it was, after everything<\/p>\n
got hazy in my head \u2013 those buzzing flies,<\/p>\n
the gossips, graybeards, hustling evangelists \u2013<\/p>\n
they wanted facts, they said,<\/p>\n
but what they were really after,<\/p>\n
was miracles.<\/p>\n
Miracles, imagine! I was only a girl<\/p>\n
when it happened, Joseph<\/p>\n
acting edgy and claiming<\/p>\n
it wasn\u2019t his baby \u2013 \u2013 \u2013<\/p>\n
Anyway, years later<\/p>\n
they wanted miracles, like the big-time cults<\/p>\n
up in Rome and Athens, God<\/p>\n
come down in a shower of coins,<\/p>\n
a sexy swan, something like that.<\/p>\n
But no, there was only<\/p>\n
one wild-eyed man at our kitchen window<\/p>\n
telling me I\u2019m lucky.<\/p>\n
And pregnant.<\/p>\n
I said, \u201cTalk sense mister, it\u2019s got to be<\/p>\n
the one thing or the other.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
No big swans, no golden coins<\/p>\n
in that grubby mule-and-donkey village. Still,<\/p>\n
they wanted miracles,<\/p>\n
and what could I tell them? He<\/p>\n
was my baby, after all, I washed<\/p>\n
his little bum, was I<\/p>\n
supposed to think I was wiping<\/p>\n
God Almighty?<\/p>\n
But they wanted miracles, kept after me<\/p>\n
to come up with one: \u201cThis fellow at the window,<\/p>\n
did he by any chance have wings?\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
Wings! Do frogs have wings?<\/p>\n
Do camels fly?<\/p>\n
They thought it over. \u201cCherubim\u201d\u009d, they said,<\/p>\n
\u201cmay walk the earth like men<\/p>\n
and work their wonders.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
I laughed in their hairy faces. No<\/p>\n
cherub, that guy! But<\/p>\n
they wouldn\u2019t quit \u2013 fanatics, like<\/p>\n
the gang he fell in with years ago\u2019<\/p>\n
all goading him till he began to believe<\/p>\n
in quick cures and faith healing,<\/p>\n
just like the cranks in Jerusalem, every<\/p>\n
phony in town speaking in tongues<\/p>\n
and handling snakes. Not exactly<\/p>\n
what you\u2019d want for your son, is it?<\/p>\n
I tried to warn him, but he just says,<\/p>\n
\u201cI must be about my father\u2019s business.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
\u201cFine,\u201d\u009d I say, \u201cI\u2019ll buy you a new<\/p>\n
hammer.\u201d\u009d But nothing could stop him, already<\/p>\n
hooked on the crowds, the hosannas,<\/p>\n
the thrill of needling the bureaucrats.<\/p>\n
Holier than thou, he got, roughing up<\/p>\n
the rabbis even. Every night<\/p>\n
I cried myself to sleep \u2013 my son,<\/p>\n
my baby boy \u2013 \u2013 \u2013<\/p>\n
You know how it all turned out, the crunch<\/p>\n
of those awful spikes,<\/p>\n
the spear in his side, the whole town watching,<\/p>\n
home-town folks come down from Nazareth<\/p>\n
with a strange gleam in their eyes. Then later on<\/p>\n
the grave robbers, the hucksters, the imposters all<\/p>\n
claiming to be him. I was sick<\/p>\n
for a year, his bloody image<\/p>\n
blurring the sunlight.<\/p>\n
And now they want miracles, God<\/p>\n
at my maidenhead, sex without sin.<\/p>\n
\u201cGo home,\u201d\u009d I tell them, \u201cback to your libraries,<\/p>\n
read about your fancy Greeks,<\/p>\n
and come up with something amazing, if you must.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
Me, I\u2019m just a small-town woman,<\/p>\n
a carpenter\u2019s wife, Jewish mother, nothing<\/p>\n
special. But listen,<\/p>\n
whenever I told my baby a fairy tale,<\/p>\n
I let him know it was a fairy tale.<\/p>\n
Go, all of you, and do likewise.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
From JRT\u2019s blog<\/a> HT Shuck and Jive<\/a><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Years later, it was, after everything got hazy in my head \u2013 those buzzing flies, the gossips, graybeards, hustling evangelists \u2013 they wanted facts, they said, but what they were really after, was miracles. Miracles, imagine! I was only a girl when it happened, Joseph acting edgy and claiming it wasn\u2019t his baby \u2013 \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,32,34,39],"tags":[1140,1852,3328,4110,7075,9053,9274,9279],"class_list":["post-5074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible","category-gospel-of-luke","category-gospel-of-matthew","category-historical-jesus","tag-bible","tag-christmas","tag-fairy-tales","tag-gospels","tag-mary","tag-philip-appleman","tag-poem","tag-poetry"],"yoast_head":"\n
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