By Richard A. Elkins
RWiley Foreword: I want to thank Richard for offering up this sweet short story he penned. Richard and his wife Annette, joined our church earlier this year after coming for about a year to our GYM service. He volunteers with our youth and is such an integral part of that leadership team. Read this story to your kiddos Christmas eve, and enjoy the wonder and hope our Savior brings with His arrival. May your holiday season be restful and filled with joy!
“Eli, Eli, come out here and stop running and jumping through the new wheat straw that the master is putting down for us in the stable,” Eli’s mother shouted from the stable lot.
“Eli, you heard your mother, come out here now,” Eli’s father said from the stable lot by the fence.
“Wahoo, wahoo,” little Eli said as he came jumping and leaping out of the stable into the stable lot just a short distance behind the Inn at the edge of Bethlehem.
“I wonder why there are so many people in the streets of Bethlehem these days,” mother said as she looked through the fence boards towards the street that pasted in front of the Inn.
“I overheard a couple of burros say yesterday that there is something going on with the Caesar,” father replied.
“I have never seen so many people in the streets here around the Inn,” mother said, “and they all look like they have been traveling for days.”
“Yes, they all seem to be just dragging their way aimlessly almost as if they are lost,” father added.
“Whee, baaaa; this is a great day for running,” Little Eli shouted as he made one more lap around the stable lot. He stopped alongside of mother and father long enough to ask, “What are you standing here looking at? I would rather run and play.”
“We are just looking at all of the people who are coming to the master’s Inn and being turned away; because all of his rooms are filled already,” Eli’s mother answered. “Eli, you better run while you can, it’s starting to get evening and almost time for us to go inside the stable for the night. Here comes the master now with our feed,” Mother instructed.
“Alright Mother, one more lap. I am getting a little tired anyway,” little Eli said as he bolted for one last trip past Mr. Horse, Ms. Cow and his Mother and Father.
All the animals made their way into the stable as they watched the Inn Keeper pour out their feed into the trough and put some fresh grass hay in the manger. He left shortly and returned to the back door of the Inn. “Come on now Eli, you are getting sleepy already, but you need to eat so you will grow strong like your father,” Mother said.
After Eli’s family, Mr. Horse and Ms. Cow had eaten they all seemed to find their normal places in the stable where they would sleep for the night. As always, little Eli laid down between his mother and father just to the side of the manger of hay. It had become their spot to sleep, just beyond the opening in the roof top of the stable that sometime would let the rain in.
Little Eli’s head had barely touched the straw and he was sound asleep. “He had a busy day today with all of that running, jumping and leaping around the stable lot,” Mother said as Father nodded his head.
They were only asleep for a short time when Eli’s mother awoke with a start, “Oh my, what is all of that noise. Father, look there is someone banging on the Inn Keepers door very loudly.”
“Let me see what is going on,” Father said and he rose to his feet and walked to the entry of the stable. “Oh my mother, there seems to be a young man who is in dire need for a room, and look it appears that his wife is very heavy with child,” father went on saying.
“Oh my, and the master is motioning for them to go away. I just know that he would help them if he possibly could, because he is a very kind man,” mother added.
“Look, the young man is walking away, he must feel very desperate,” father said sadly.
“Wait, look, master is calling him back and pointing towards the stable here where we are watching from,” mother said with wonder.
The Inn Keeper went back into the Inn and quickly returned to the back door with a lantern and motioned to the young couple to follow him as he walked towards the stable lot gate.
“Eli, Eli, wake up, hurry come over here and away from the manger to the back of the stable,” Mother said as little Eli stirred awake and slowly rose to his feet. “Come quickly Eli, hurry over here with your father and me,” mother went on saying.
Eli walked slowly to where his mother and father stood at the back of the stable, as he still seemed to be half asleep. “What is going on? Why is everyone awake and standing around? And who is the master bringing into our stable?” Eli fired away with all of his questions as he tried to wake up.
“I am so sorry that this is all that I have available for you and your wife, Joseph,” the Inn Keeper said as he raised his lantern and pointed to the area over by the manger. “I just freshened up the stable with new wheat straw this afternoon, so it is as clean as a stable can be,” the Inn Keeper went on saying.
“Oh this will be much better than spending the night out on the streets of Bethlehem with my wife Mary who is almost ready to deliver,” Joseph said gratefully. “We will be fine here for the night, then tomorrow we will go farther into Bethlehem to see if any of the other Inns have a room, because it looks like we will be here for a couple of days before we return to Nazareth,” Joseph said to the Inn Keeper.
“Well, humble as it is folks, welcome to Bethlehem, such as it is,” the Inn Keeper said as he left the stable headed for the Inn for the night leaving the lantern for the couple.
“Joseph, can you help me to lay down over here in this soft straw by the manger?” Mary said softly with one hand on her back and the other on her tummy. “Ahh, oh my, this straw is already warm; like someone else was sleeping here earlier,” Mary said as she lowered into the straw for her bed.
“Oh Mary, I will try my best to find a better place for you tomorrow,” Joseph said as he comforted Mary resting against his shoulder.
“Shhhhh, Eli, let’s just lie down and go back to sleep,” Eli’s mother said just as Eli was about to say something. She was sure that he was going to start again with a long list of questions.
Mr. Horse, Ms. Cow, and Eli and his family settled down for a night of rest. But Eli’s eyes were wide awake, no way was he to go to sleep with all of this new excitement in his own stable. He watched intently as the man named Joseph helped his wife Mary get settled into a comfortable position there in the fresh wheat straw right where Eli had been sleeping earlier.
“Here Mary, lean over here on me to keep warm, we just need to get through tonight and tomorrow we will find a better place to stay,” the man Joseph said as he comforted his wife, Mary. Eli could hardly blink his eyes, for fear of missing something as he stood fixed in place.
Little Eli watched the man and woman as they shifted around seeming to try to find a comfortable position to get some much needed rest. “Oh Joseph, I think that our child is going to be born tonight. He is moving around a lot and I just have that feeling,” Mary said as she leaned back in the straw that Joseph had piled up for her bed.
“Oh Mary, God’s Son can’t be born in a stable, surely not,” Joseph replied. “What will we do, with no midwife or help,” Joseph said.
“Joseph, you remember what the angle said? No matter where we are this child will surely be taken care of by God Himself,” Mary reminded Joseph.
Eli’s eyes were affixed to all that was going on, as his mother, father, Mr. Horse and Ms. Cow slept soundly. But then things started to happen and Little Eli didn’t know what to do. “Mother, mother, something seems to be wrong with the man and woman,” Eli said softly as he nudged his mother with his nose.
“What, what is going on Eli. You should be asleep,” his mother said half asleep herself. “Father, wake up, there seems to be some kind of problem here in the stable,” mother said waking up Eli’s father.
“Ohhhhhh, I was sleeping so soundly. What are you saying?” father said as he slowly stirred awake.
All three of little Eli’s family stood together in the back corner of the stable, watching as the man Joseph and the woman Mary talked in a low voice.
“Joseph, tonight our baby is going to be born, right here in this stable,” Mary said, but in a calm tone of voice. “We must get ready, for our son’s arrival,” Mary went on to say. “Take my shawl and my sash tie, we will need some swaddling clothes to wrap our baby son in to keep him warm,” Mary said with a firm tone in her voice.
Eli and his family watched from a distance and the man and woman prepared for what was about to happen, right there in their stable. The night progressed and all of a sudden, there was a “Whaaaaa, whaaaaa,” cry of a human child and little Eli was speechless, at least for a short time.
“What is that, mother?” Eli questioned.
“Oh my, that my son is a little human child,” Mother replied. “Kind of like you when you were born, except this is a human child instead of a lamb,” mother went on explaining what had just happened to her son Eli.
“Oh, I wish it would have been a lamb like me, so I would have someone to run and jump and play with out in the stable lot,” Eli said with his little lamb understanding of all that was happening right in front of his eyes.
Mother was smiling when she said, “Well this little baby came into this world just like a lamb, one could say; and right here in our stable on this night.
“MOTHER, FATHER………..Look, what is happening?” little Eli all but shouted with amazement.
“OH MY, I don’t know what that is Eli,” Mother said with a start.
“I have never seen anything like this before in my life,” father said as all three of them seemed to be frozen in place. “Why, it’s a bright light shining through that old hole in the top of the stable that has been there for years,” Father went on saying.
“It is, it is, like someone from the heavens is shining a bright light right down on my new friend who was born tonight here in my stable,” Eli said with excitement.
“Well………Eli………you are a wise little lamb. I have to agree that something very amazing has happened here tonight, but I’m not sure just what,” father said in his low night time voice.
Mary and Joseph did not seem to even notice the brilliant light that shown upon them. It was as if it all just took place in an instant and a child was born in a stable at the edge of Bethlehem as the world slept.
It was still night time as Eli’s mother and father lay back down to try to get some more rest. But Eli started to gently step towards the manger where his new friend was squirming around. Eli saw the baby’s little foot poke out of the swaddling clothes that his mother and father had wrapped Him in. Eli was a very curious little lamb, so he walked very slowly, getting closer to the manager.
Joseph was holding Mary in his arms as they both seemed to be resting. While little Eli slowly leaned forward, stretching out his neck until his cold nose barely touched the bare food of the baby. ‘Jump,’ went the baby as he jerked his little foot back inside his warm wrapping. It was like little Eli was sniffing his new friend to see if maybe he was a lamb after all. It seemed to be a period in time when one lamb met another Lamb.
“I think my new friend is a lamb after all,” Eli said softly to himself as he backed away slowly. “I wonder where life will take him when he grows up.” Eli whispered to himself as he made his way back to where his mother and father had fallen asleep.
Little Eli finally lay down between his mother and father and slowly drifted off to sleep, after his very exciting night there in the quietness of the stable behind the Inn. Something big had happened that night, and Little Eli was a small part of it.
The next day little Eli mostly stayed inside the stable where he could not seem to take his eyes off of the little baby that had been born. Later in the afternoon, Eli witnessed some shepherds come to the Inn where the Inn Keeper pointed them to the stable. They walked towards the stable and seem to stand in amazement as they gazed on Eli’s new baby friend who was barely a day old. He overheard them whispering among themselves something about, “Just like the angle told us, but how can this be that we lowly shepherds have been called to the birth place where ‘a Savior, who is Christ the Lord’ has been born.”
“Mother, what does it mean, ‘That a Savior, who is Christ the Lord’ has been born?” Eli asked as they all continued to watch all that was taking place there in the stable.
“I am not sure Eli. I have only heard bits and pieces of the humans talk, but I do understand that this Savior whom they speak of is very dear to their hearts,” mother answered in a low soft voice.
Later, after the shepherds left and then when Mary, Joseph and the baby left the stable; little Eli returned to his running, jumping and leaping all around the stable lot. But for some reason whenever he passed by the manager, he would pause and think in his young mind of the night that a ‘Savior’ (whom he called friend) was born right there in his stable. It was an amazing night that he would never forget. Little Eli had witnessed the birth of the Savior of the world there on that very first Christmas, making him ‘Eli The Christmas Lamb.’