Joseph: How do you feel, Mary?
Mary: Pregnant. Very pregnant.
Joseph: Are you comfortable? Do you have enough hay?
Mary: I do, thank you. And thanks for doing such a thorough job cleaning that feeding trough. I can’t believe our baby’s first crib will be a feeding trough.
Joseph: No, no: it’s not a feeding trough. It’s a manger. Remember: not trough. Manger.
Mary: You’re so funny. That is a better name for it.
Joseph: We’re lucky we even got that. I can’t believe how crowded the inn is.
Mary: Everyone’s traveling because of that stupid census. Why can’t we just mail something in saying who we are? Why do we have to come all the way to Bethlehem to register?
Joseph [disdainfully]: Caesar.
Mary: I wish it would hail on Caesar. [Warmly touching her belly]: Oh, well. Our little guy here will have a thing or two to say about the way things are run.
Joseph: Apparently. You know, I still can’t over what the angel said to me that night.
Mary: Tell me again! I love that story.
Joseph: Well, I was sleeping, just like any other night—you remember that night; I stayed up late because I’d eaten that bad chicken?
Mary: I do remember that. You poor thing.
Joseph: So I’m finally asleep—when all of a sudden this vision of an actual angel was before me. In a voice like all the music in the world played at once, the angel said to me, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
Mary: Wow.
Joseph: I know. That’s was pretty much my response.
Mary: It’s unbelievable.
Joseph: Which is why I didn’t exactly share it with the neighborhood.
Mary: It’s so hard to believe.
Joseph: And before that you’d had your whole miracle.
Mary: Tell me about it. Talk about divine intervention.
Joseph: And the angel who came to you said what, again?
Mary: He said not to be afraid, that I had found favor with God. “You will be with child,” said the angel, “and give birth to a son. And you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”
Joseph: Wow.
Mary: I know.
Joseph: Well, at least we don’t have to worry about picking out a name for the boy.
Mary: Right. “Larry” is out. [Joseph laughs.]
Joseph: You know, I still wonder what my angel meant by “he will save people from their sins.” Do you wonder about that?
Mary: How could I not?
Joseph: What is that about, you think?
Mary: I have no idea. I guess … that people will stop sinning?
Joseph: But do you really think that’s possible?
Mary: Well, we can’t start doubting the angels now.
Joseph [chuckling lightly]: No, let’s not. But how do you think that whole “save people from their sins” thing is gonna work, exactly?
Mary: Maybe everyone will just start being … really, really nice all the time?
Joseph: I guess. Or maybe our son will make it so that people don’t want to sin?
Mary: Or maybe that they can’t?
Joseph: And how’s he gonna effect everybody? That’s a lot of people.
Mary: Maybe he’s going to travel a lot?
Joseph: Maybe it’s not going to be everyone who stops sinning. Maybe it’s just going to be us. My angel did say he’d save his people from their sins. Who’s more of his people than us? Maybe he’s just going to stop us from sinning.
Mary: That’d be nice.
Joseph: Be a change for me, anyway. You wouldn’t even notice a difference.
Mary [playfully slapping him]: Stop it. Besides, it won’t be just us. Remember: “He will reign over the house of Jacob forever”? That’s not just us.
Joseph: It’s all so unbelievable.
Mary: It is. I just don’t know what to expect. Is he going to be born with wings? Is he going to come out talking? Wearing a crown? What?
Joseph: Well, we know we’ve been told not to worry. So whatever happens, it’ll be okay.
Mary: I know it will. I can feel it.
Joseph: I love you, Mary. So much.
Mary: I love you, too. You’re such a good, good man.
Joseph: Once our baby boy is born, things are going to be different for us.
Mary: In some ways.
Joseph: I guess they’ll be different for everybody.
Mary: It seems so. [Pause.] I just hope he’s all right.
Joseph: What do you mean?
Mary: I hope that no one hurts him.
Joseph: Hurts him? Why would anyone hurt him? He will be great, and called the Son of the Most High. Why on earth would anybody want to hurt him?
****
(To know me is to like me.)
![John Shore on The Huffington Post](http://johnshore.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/huffpost.jpg?w=120 "John Shore on The Huffington Post\")
{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
Great!
That was really good—-too cool.
Loved your M & J script.
nice.
Thank you, Natalie. Very much.
"Right. 'Larry' is out."
Very nice. God sure knew what he was doing. Especially considering that two of Jesus lesser known half-brothers wound up being named Moe & Curly.
OK…maybe those were just nicknames.
Moe and Curly. That is too, TOO funny. I love it.
*sighs* oh, how very untrue that last part was. Very, very sad that joseph was wrong.
The only thing to make it better would be to talk about how jesus wasn't actually born in the winter. Where they were at they had winters like we might in the north. 1. there would be no way they would be traveling in a blizzard. 2. it would be way too cold to stay the night in a barn without freezing. 3. there were sheep in the fields, they wouldn't be there in winter.
link: http://www.ucg.org/bible-faq/jesus-christ-born-de…
your story is cute
Hey, K. Thanks for the comment! You know, I am familiar with the "Can't Be Winter" scholarship you've here refererenced. But you know how it is: for the purposes of this particular bit, I could only stick to the big, broad, most popularly understood story of what happened. But yes, a different, very interesting thing to explore would be this strain of thought you've here brought to light.
I agree with Judy, great for a church play or youth group. I enjoyed this very much.
Blessings to you and your wife this Christmas.
Really? You guys think so, with the plays? Hmmm. I fear my style would … collide with the editorial sensibilities of the kinds of people who run the kinds of companies who publish plays for church youth groups to perform. But maybe not!
This is so beautiful.
Of course, the ending…
I enjoyed the story but in the part about Joseph and the bad chicken it sounds like Mary is living with Joseph at the time since he seems to be speaking as if Mary was already in bed when he came home. This was before they were even married. I hope I am wrong but that is how it sounded.
Thanks, you guys. Very kind!
Wade: I wish you'd read this stuff before you just commented on it. I have no idea where you're getting your thought that I wrote it as if Joseph and Mary were living together before they were married. I'm outraged that you'd suggest I could be so insensitive to the state of their marital status as to ….
Okay; I'm lying. You were right. Good eyes. I changed it.
Hmmmm, seems like a great youth group Christmas play in the making!! Great idea for a next book…….Short plays for youth groups!!
You have a gift for dialog. I enjoyed that.
Somehow I don't think that their conversation would have been too far removed from this one. This is a sweet portrayal, it made me smile big time and "wonder." Wishing you and yours a joyous Christmas John!
WOW. You make it sound so…real? Well it is real, but you know what I mean. Loved it