Back to Bethlehem

The night is not going the way Connie Kendall planned. She and Eugene Meltsner have traveled to Bethlehem in the Imagination Station hoping to witness the very first Christmas, and instead Connie finds herself hurrying through a garden with a young zealot at her heels. Judah has decided he is in love with her, and he asks her to marry him. Connie says no. Mary is about to have her baby, Benjamin needs help at the inn, and Connie has no time for a proposal. Judah announces that he will take the matter up with her master, Eugenius, which does not improve her mood at all.

The two of them freeze when they spot Romans in the courtyard. Lucanus, general of the Fifth Legion, is doubling the guard for the night and intends to sleep in the courtyard himself, since there is no room at the inn. His captain, Felix, half hopes the townspeople will start something so the soldiers can show their strength, and Lucanus warns him sharply to keep his temper. Then a cry goes up from the stable. The baby has been born. Connie has seen it happen with her own eyes, and she is bursting to tell someone, but Eugene has kept a respectful distance from the birth out of regard for the customs of the time. He races off instead to find old Hezekiah, who has waited his whole life for this child.

Alone in the courtyard, Connie meets Lucanus face to face. He is charming in a way that makes her uneasy, admiring her hands, asking whether she would like to see Rome, and finally suggesting she would make a fine wife for a lonely Roman soldier. Judah bursts in with his sword drawn, and the general - who is old, but very quick - disarms and corners him in moments. With Judah about to be run through, Connie breaks a borrowed water pot over the general's head and knocks him flat. Judah is not grateful. He is humiliated, and he goes looking for his sword to finish what he started.

Connie's shouting brings Eugene and Hezekiah running. Hezekiah wrestles the boy for the blade and pleads with him that killing is not the way, that there is a greater road to freedom, and that the one who will win it has already arrived - not a man, but a newborn baby. Judah scoffs. Soldiers come pounding into the courtyard, and Judah escapes through the garden, leaving Eugene and Hezekiah standing over the fallen general. The two are seized as zealots and hauled away.

Benjamin, harried and armed with liniments and oils, tells Connie there is nothing to be done. This is not an age of miracles and messiahs, he says; it is the age of Romans, and if she wants a miracle she had better pray. Connie tells him he is standing in the middle of a miracle and cannot even see it. In their cell, Hezekiah hangs from the ropes and calmly explains to Eugene that they will either be freed or executed as traitors, and that his only grief is that he may never see the child. Eugene tries to reason his way out of the ropes, then tries to theorize about the value of prayer. Hezekiah cuts him off gently: pray or do not pray, but do it as a matter of faith, not of theory.

The miracle, when it comes, is a small and strange one. Judah slips back to beg Connie's forgiveness before leaving town, and is arrested on the spot as the general's attacker. But when Lucanus is brought out to identify him, the general takes a long look and declares this is not the man - only a jealous boyfriend - and orders both the boy and the harmless old man released. He has a headache, he is finished with Bethlehem, and he leaves for Rome in the morning. Benjamin, watching a compassionate Roman walk away, wonders aloud whether this might be a time for miracles after all. Judah, offended when Connie suggests he give up his fight, says a grand farewell and goes.

Then the courtyard fills with shepherds. Aaron, breathless, describes something he cannot put into words - angels - and asks where to find a child wrapped in swaddling cloth. Connie tells Eugene how the sky opened over the fields with glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men. Hezekiah arrives with gifts he could not choose between, and Joseph welcomes them all inside. The old man blesses Mary, looks at last into the manger, and praises God for letting his old eyes see salvation. Joseph tells him the child's name will be Yeshua, Jesus, the Redeemer of Israel and the world.

Connie turns to say how beautiful he is, and finds herself back at Whit's End with the door of the Imagination Station open. Nobody will admit to pushing the button. Eugene insists that his damp eyes are only allergies, all that hay in the stable, and Connie decides this has been a night of miracles. Whit closes the evening with the old promise of a child born, a son given, whose name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, and whose kingdom will have no end.