TWO BABIES IN A MANGER

                                                       Two Babies in a Manger











   A social worker answered an invitation from the Department of Education to teach morals and ethics based on biblical principals. He was invited before to teach in prisons, businesses, the fire and police departments and, that year a large orphanage was chosen...
   About one hundred boys and girls whom had been abandoned, abused, and left in the care of a government-run program were there.
   It was nearing the holiday season, 2001, the beginning of a new century which, apparently, had begun with the same problems of century's past. It was time for those children to hear, for the first time, the traditional story of Christmas...
   He told them about Mary and Joseph arriving in Bethlehem. Finding no room in the Inn, the holly couple went to a stable, where the baby Jesus was born and placed in a manger. Throughout the story, the children and orphanage staff sat in amazement as they listened. Some sat on the edges of their stools, trying to grasp every word.
   After completing the story, he gave the children three small pieces of cardboard to make a crude manger. 
   Each child was given a small paper square, cut from yellow napkins I had brought with me. No colored paper was available at the place. Following instructions, the children tore the paper and carefully laid strips in the manger for straw. Small squares of flannel, cut from a worn-out nightgown of a lady were used for the baby's blanket. A doll-like baby was cut from tan felt I had brought with me. The orphans were busy assembly their manger as I walked among them to see if they needed any help.
   All went well until I got to one table where a little boy sat. He seemed to be about six years old and had finished his project. As I looked at the manger he had done, I startled to see not one, but two babies in the manger. Quickly, I asked him why there were two babies in the manger...
   Crossing his arms in front of himself and looking at his completed nativity scene, the child begun to repeat the story very seriously. 
   For such a young boy, whom had only heard the Christmas story once, he related the happenings accurately, until he came to the part where Mary put the baby Jesus in the Manger.
   Then, he started to ad-lib. Making his own ending to the story, he said:
-  And when the Virgin Mary laid the baby in the manger, Jesus looked at me and asked if I had a  
   place to stay. I told him I had no mamma and I have no papa, so I don't have a place to stay. Then,  
   Jesus told me I could stay with him. But I told him I couldn't, because I didn't have any gift to give
   him like everybody else did. But, I wanted to stay with Jesus so much, so I thought about what I 
   had that maybe I could use for a gift... I thought, maybe, if I kept him warm, that would be a good 
   gift.
      So, I asked baby Jesus, "If I keep you warm would that be a good gift?" And Jesus told me: "If 
   you keep me warm, that would be the best gift anybody ever gave me,"
      So, I got into the manger, and then Jesus looked at me and he told me I could stay with him... For
   always...
   As the little boy finished his story, his eyes brimmed full of tears that splashed down his little cheeks. Putting his hands over his face, his head dropped to the table and his shoulders shook as he sobbed. Finally, the little orphan had found someone who wold never abandon nor abuse him, someone who would stay with him forever.
   
   This can be a lesson on how to keep our faith, to find ways to solve adversities, to have our hopes high; even if, out of options, we have to elaborate on a fantasy, if nothing else, to maintain us thru life till something better comes our way, just like that little boy did when he put two babies in a manger.






Copyright 12/ 2005 Eugene Colin.