John hung the towel on the hook and opened the door to the bathroom. He slowly took the 2 steps across the hall to his bedroom, holding the door jamb to steady himself. From the door of his bedroom to the bed was a step and a half and then he could lean down to put his hand on the bed, turn around carefully and then sit down on the bed. Once he had done that, he slowly slid down the bed to his night table. The clock showed 3am. ‘Only up 2 times so far. Not too bad tonight,’ he thought.
He leaned back, pulled his legs up on the bed, laid down, and brought the blanket up under his chin. As he closed his eyes he remembered that it was now Christmas Day. Another Christmas without Alice. He looked up at the ceiling and said, ‘Merry Christmas, Alice. I hope you are doing well. I love you. I miss you, and I’m very sorry.’
He gave a deep sigh of anguish, closed his eyes, and eventually fell asleep.
When he opened his eyes it was still dark, but hovering above the foot of his bed was a young man surrounded by a pale light. An angel, John thought to himself matter-of-factly, as if this were completely normal. I must be dreaming, he thought, but he knew he was not.
The angel smiled, and said, ‘Hello, John. Be not afraid. I have come to you with a gift from Jesus. Would you like to receive it?’.
As the angel spoke, John’s eyes became larger. He stared at the angel and said nothing.
The angel continued to smile, and came a little closer. ‘Did you hear me, John? May I give you a gift for Christmas?’
John moved his lips to speak but no sound came out. He cleared his throat and said, ‘OK’.
The angel smiled even more, and said, ‘Wonderful, John. I am going to take you somewhere. OK, John?’.
John gave a slight nod of his head.
Before he could think what had happened, John found himself standing in a grove of trees with the angel beside him. He looked around and about 30 metres away he saw a small group of men talking. It was night time, but there seemed to be more light than he would have expected.
The angel said, ‘John, go over to the group of men. Don’t worry. They will know you, and you will know them. Just follow their lead, and you will receive your gift.’
The angel rose among the trees and disappeared.
John started walking over to the group of men. His legs felt a lot stronger than they usually were. ‘It’s been a long time since I could walk like this’, he thought. ‘It feels good.’ As he walked, he saw that he was on one side of a valley with hills bordering the valley on all sides. There were bunches of trees here and there on the hillsides. The valley itself looked mostly flat and grass covered. There was a large bright star in the sky with bright rays of light shining to the ground on the other side of the valley.
When he came up to the group of men, they turned to him and one of them said to him, ‘Were you watering the trees again, Johanan?’ John replied, ‘You are just jealous, Tobias, because all of my trees are stronger and taller than your trees.’ All the men laughed, including Tobias.
Tobias turned to another man in the group and said to him, ‘Abijah, tell Johanan what you just told us. Let us see what he thinks we should do.’
Abijah turned to John and said, ‘Like we always do, Micah and I were watching the flocks up in the 2nd pasture beyond the far hill’, he pointed to a hill at the east end of the valley, ‘and all of a sudden there was light all around us, and then an angel was in front of us. I didn’t know what to do.’
‘You were shaking’, said Micah.
‘So were you’, said Abijah, and then he continued, ‘I thought I was going to fall down my legs were so weak. Then the angel spoke, and said, ‘Do not be afraid. I have good news for you. Today was born in the city of David our Saviour, our Messiah.’ And then the angel said, ‘You can find the baby in a manger, wrapped in cloth.’ And right after the angel said that a lot of angels were there, and they were full of joy and singing, ‘Glory to God in heaven, and on earth peace to those He favours.” Abijah looked at Micah and thought for a moment and said, ‘That’s what I remember.’
Micah nodded. ‘Yes, that’s what I remember, too. And when the angels finished singing they disappeared. And then we saw the big star in the sky and the light coming down from the star, and we hurried here to look for all of you to tell you what happened.’
Tobias said to John, ‘what do you think we should do?’
John said, ‘I think we should do what the angel said. We should go honour the Messiah. We should go where the star’s light shines,’ and he pointed across the valley to what looked like a string of cave entrances along the base of a hill. The light from the star shone right over the entrance of one of the cave entrances. ‘There. We should go there.’
John turned to the man on his right, an older man who looked old but spry. He asked, ‘What do you think, Mathias?’
The older man said, ‘Yes, I agree. We should pay our respects to Our Messiah.’
They all turned toward the other side of the valley and started walking. Mathias led the way, with John second, and all the others walking in line behind them.
Although it was night, the valley was well lit by the light of the star. The air was comfortable, fresh and cool. The grass where they were walking was short as it had been recently grazed, and it crunched softly as they walked. It was maybe a kilometre across the valley. They walked quickly. John felt energized, drawn more and more to the light with each footstep, his heart longing for what he would find inside.
When they were about 50 metres from the entrance, a man stepped out of the shadows of the entrance and waited to meet them. He watched them quietly as they approached.
The stopped a few metres away from him. He was of medium height, with a full beard as all men wore. His clothes were not those of a shepherd, but were still simple and modest. The hand that held his staff was strong and calloused, so he was a man who worked with his hands. He looked friendly, but also determined. He looked like a man who took his responsibilities seriously.
‘Shalom aleichem,’ the man at the door said.
‘Aleichem shalom’, said Mathias.
Mathias said, ‘Sir, I am called Mathias. Members of my family,’ he gestured to us behind him, ‘have received word tonight from an angel, that Our Messiah has been born, and we have followed the light of God here to your blessed home. If you would allow us, we would pay our respects to the grace that God has bestowed upon your family, on us, and on all of our people.’
Joseph responded, ‘I am called Joseph. Friend, you honour my home with your presence. Please, come inside.’
Joseph turned and went through the entrance door. There was a short passage which opened up into a room. As he entered the room, Joseph stepped to one side and motioned to where a baby lay in a manger. He said, ‘He is called Jesus.’
As he entered the room, Mathias dropped to his knees, and looking down at the floor, began to crawl towards the foot of the manger. John also knelt, and as he did so, he saw that they had entered a stable that had been hewn from the rock of the hillside. It had been cleaned meticulously, and there was no smell of animals that would have previously been kept here. Instead, there was a beautiful scent of some kind of flowers, although there were no flowers that he could see. There were a few beautiful handmade knitted items hung as decoration. It was comfortably warm in the stable, with a few candles, but the light of the room was not coming from the candles. Instead, the room seemed to glow with light from the baby in the manger.
Beside the manger knelt a young woman, poised serenely looking at the baby. While she was veiled, John felt she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She radiated peace, humility, and strength. As John moved closer to the manger, although he wanted to speak with her, he remained quiet, not wanting to show her any disrespect.
Mathias knelt at the foot of the manger for a few minutes. He then moved aside, and John took his place. John dropped his forehead down to the smooth rock of the floor and held it there. After a few seconds, He heard a rustle of cloth in the manger beside his head and he looked up just enough to see the baby, Jesus, looking at him.
Jesus lay on a blanket in the manger with his upper body partially raised, so He was able to look down at John near His feet. He was wrapped in swaddling clothes except for his arms which lay by his sides. John saw a baby’s face looking at him, beautiful, sweet and serene, with eyes that were both innocent and somehow contained an understanding and wisdom beyond anything that John had ever seen before.
When John looked up at Him, Jesus smiled. He raised His little right arm toward John. John hesitated, not sure what to do. He then felt compelled to move his right hand toward the Jesus’ hand. Jesus took John’s little finger in His hand and held it.
John froze, unsure what to do. He stayed absolutely still, unable even to breathe. He felt a warmth of energy spread from his finger, up his arm and throughout his body. It was a feeling of peace and love, of warmth and joy. It was a feeling that John hoped would never go away.
After a few moments, Jesus let go of John’s finger and lowered His arm back down by His side. John slowly pulled back his hand. He lowered his brow to the floor, took a breath, and then crawled away to make room for Tobias behind him.
Feeling drawn to go outside, he then crawled back through the passage and to the stable entrance. John stood up and looked out at the valley before him. His mind and body were still.
Just then, the angel appeared by John’s side. He said to John, ‘It is time for you to go home’. John nodded his head. He could form no words, overwhelmed by what had just happened.
Immediately John was back in his apartment standing in the middle of the small living room. The angel was before him, floating in the air. The angel said, ‘There is one thing Jesus wants me to tell you. He wants you to know that Alice is fine, that since she lived such a devout life she now lives with Jesus. She is happy and wants you to take care of yourself, as you always took care of her. Jesus does not want you to trouble yourself anymore over the accident that took her life. While she did die in the accident, your reaction while driving saved the life of the boy that ran out in front of your car, and that was the right thing for you to do. Jesus understands why you feel as you do, but asks that you forgive yourself, as it was not possible for you to save them both.’
Tears welled in Johns eyes. ‘Alice is OK’, he asked, hardly able to get the words out.
The angel nodded. John took a deep, shuddering breath, and let the tears flow down his face.
After a minute, the angel came a little closer and said quietly, ‘I must go now, John. Continue your life in devotion to The Most High, as you have done, and as best you can. One day you will meet Alice again, I’m sure. Love Jesus who loves you.’
‘How can I thank you’, asked John softly. The angel smiled, bowed his head, and was gone.
John just stood there. He still felt the warmth and peace and love that had felt when Jesus had held his finger. For the first time since Alice had died the knot in his stomach was gone.
After the tears had stopped, and he was breathing normally again, John turned and started walking to his bedroom. As he moved, he could feel the extra strength in his legs start leaving him, and by the time he reached the bedroom door he needed to hold onto the door frame like before. He carefully took the step and a half to the bed, leaned down to put his hand on the bed, turned around carefully and sat down on the bed. He then slid down the bed to his night table.
The clock showed 4am.
He slowly raised his legs and lay down on the bed and pulled the blankets up under his chin. He looked up at the ceiling and said, ‘Merry Christmas, Alice. The angel said you are with Jesus. I’m very happy about that.’ He paused, and then said, ‘The Angel said that Jesus said I’m not supposed to feel so bad about how things turned out. I promise, I’ll do my best.; He paused again, and said, ‘I miss you very much, Alice. I love you.’
He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and fell asleep.
The End.
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Life is hard. Keep trying. God will help you.
I wish you and your loved ones a Very Merry Christmas, and a happy 2025.
Peace be with you.
Steve.
Peace Be With You 