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SOUTH TEXAS CHRISTMAS STORY
“In those days, a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all
the world should be registered....” (Luke 2:1)
What if God sent the Christmas child to south Texas in “these days”
instead of to Palestine in “those days”?
Now there was a young girl named Maria. She was a good girl; she always
helped her mama, she never fought with her brothers and sisters; she went
to church every week and she prayed every day because she really loved
God. She was so good, in fact, that God chose her to have His baby.
Maria had a boyfriend named Joe. He was a good boy, too, and he loved
Maria a lot. So he was awful mad when Maria told him she was gonna’ have
a baby. Joe was all ready to break up with her when God told him in a
dream not to do that. Instead, he was to take care of Maria and the baby
because that baby was God’s own boy! So Joe found them a little place to
live and he and Maria set up housekeeping and began to get things ready
for the baby.
Then, one day Joe came home early from work. “Oh, Maria,” he said,
“I just found out that I gotta’ go back home to Casa de Pan right
away.”
Maria was upset. “ To Casa de Pan?” she asked. “Why, Joe-honey,
that’s near a hundred miles away. How ya’ gonna’ git there? Can’t
it wait ‘till after the baby comes?”
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “I gotta’ go home to register
for the Army ’fore the end of the year. But I ain’t about to leave ya’
here alone whilst I’m gone. You’re comin’ along!”
“But Joey, how we gonna’ get all the way to Casa de Pan?” she
wondered. “I don’t think that old pick-up of ours can make it!”
He knew she was right. “No, Honey. we can’t count on the truck. But
I’ve got just enough cash-money to buy us two bus tickets home.”
“But, Joe, the baby could come any day now. What if he comes while we’re
away? Or worse yet, while we’re on the bus?”
“I don’t know what we’ll do, Maria. Pack a few baby things just
in case – but I just don’t know... But I gotta’ go; the Army don’t
give me no choice. And ya gotta’ come with me ‘cause I promised the
Lord I’d take care of you and the baby and, by God, I’m gonna’ keep
that promise!”
“Yes, we’ll just have to trust the Lord,” Maria said quietly. “After
all, it’s His baby!”
“Right!” her young husband agreed. “And since it’s God’s
baby, God’s just gonna’ hafta’ take care of him – and us, too!”
They made it to Casa de Pan. But, by the time they got there, Maria’s
birth pains were coming closer together. They knew they’d have to find a
place for her to rest.
Tired and worried, Joe led Maria to a cluttered storeroom in the back
of the bus station. “There ain’t an empty room in town, Honey, what
with the holidays and all. The guy at the ticket window thought about this
place. It’s the store room for lost suitcases. It ain’t much but it’s
better ‘n nothin’, ain’t it?”
“Oh, it’ll do fine, Honey,” she reassured him. “We might feel
right at home in there with all them lost bags and boxes.”
“Yeah, Maria, we’re sorta’ like that stuff, ain’t we? We got no
place where we belong, neither! Here, I’ll quick make ya’ a place to
rest.”
Maria smiled through her birth pains as she lay down on Joe’s coat
and rested her head on some suitcases. “Thanks, Joe. It ain’t gonna’
be long now!”
And that’s where God’s baby was born. Maria wrapped him up in a
blanket she’d brought from home, and laid him in an empty packing box.
They named him Jesus, just like God told them to.
Some of the men who load suitcases in the buses wondered why the light
was on in the storeroom so late that night. They went to find out, and
found Maria and Joe and that God-baby lying in a packing box. They visited
awhile and sang some Christmas carols.. Then they went back to work again,
laughin’ and praisin’ and still singin’ Christmas carols.
“...and Mary treasured all these [things], and pondered them in her
heart...” (Luke 2:19)
May you, too, ponder all the joy and hope of Christmas and keep them in
your heart forever!
Bruce and Mary Sue
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