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Visit from a Shepherd Boy

By Sara Jewell

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Chapter One

Joey Returns

Something was nagging him. A memory? In a state of drowsiness, Josh blinked, yawned mightily, and slowly woke up. With a start he realized, oh my, it’s Christmas! Half asleep, he looked at his clock. Staring at the hands in shock, he realized that it was nearly noon. He rubbed his eyes several times, confused.
Aloud he said, “I thought it was just about dawn! The room is so dark.” But as he looked out the window, he saw thick snow squalls blocking the weak daylight. He involuntarily shivered.
Then the morning’s events returned to him in slow motion. His memory came back. He was still in bed because he had tried to find Mr. George, the snowman he had made for his mom and aunt for Christmas. Yes, that was it. Through half-closed eyes, he looked back out the window again and could hear the snow being driven so hard against the pane that it sounded like sand blasting the window. Yes, the blizzard. It was all about getting lost in the blizzard.
A week ago, he had built this very cool snowman on an old sled he found leaning up against the wall in their dusty, cluttered garage. He dragged the rusted sled to the back of the yard where a small white shed stood surrounded by overgrown bushes and saplings. Behind the building was a small clearing, and there he built his snowman, who he called Mr. George for no other reason than he liked the name. It was a perfect hiding place because no one ever walked to the back of the large wooded lot, and he could work without anyone seeing him.
His plan had been to slide Mr. George to the bottom of the porch stairs Christmas morning to surprise his mom and aunt. The snow man was way too heavy to lift and bring up to the porch, but he would make a perfect sentry for the foot of the stairs. Josh was very proud of his work, and he knew his mom and aunt would love their present.
As Josh made his way toward the shed this morning to get Mr. George, it was snowing so hard that every bush was covered in deep drifts. Even the white shed was barely visible in the storm. To his dismay, he couldn’t find the little clearing where Mr. George quietly sat and waited. Everything looked different as he trudged past the shed. The drifts were everywhere, and the snow was swirling in his eyes, making it difficult to see. The yard covered more than an acre of woods, and as he leaned into the howling wind and gusts of snow, he became confused. In what direction was he going? He kept walking, trying to find his way back to the shed and home, but instead he found himself dreadfully lost. So lost, he feared he might freeze to death before anyone could find him. As he lurched through the ever deepening snow, he realized his only hope was to find shelter. Miraculously, he saw a towering pine straight ahead of him.
Now lying in bed, he pulled the covers up to his chin. He silently thanked God he had been found—unconscious—but alive. His neighbor Dave said the reason they found him was because of Josh’s little toy dinosaur—something he always carried with him. It had fallen out of his pocket as he crawled and scratched his way under the giant evergreen tree. When Dave and his mom were frantically searching for him, they had seen the little toy poking out of a snow drift in front of the tree. They then knew where to find him—under the snow-laden boughs of the tree. Sure enough, when Dave dug his way through the snow and pushed under the heavy branches, there was Josh leaning against the trunk of the tree. Josh didn’t remember a thing about being found. He was in a state of frozen slumber.
Remembering all this, he closed his eyes to the bedroom and the fearful events of the morning. He settled deeper under the warm covers, not wanting to think about his early morning ordeal, but his mind didn’t want to let it go. Finally, he slipped into sleep again, where images appeared in his mind. The sky was gray with fat, lazy snowflakes quietly drifting in front of him. He turned his face upward and opened his mouth to catch the delicate flakes on his tongue, but the gentle wind tossed the flakes around like feathers, just out of his tongue’s reach. He watched the flakes, one by one, dance around his face, teasing him. Suddenly, without reason, they turned into sharp, icy crystals that swirled dangerously close to him. He batted them away and tried to run, but his legs were too heavy. The wind hurled the beautiful but jagged crystals at Josh like tiny spears. He ducked and swatted at them, but they managed to hit him. He was surprised they didn’t hurt. They melted harmlessly on his cheeks like tears and curiously, when he wiped them away, they didn’t feel wet at all.
He held his hands in front of his face. No mittens. Where were his mittens? He squinted because the storm was in full fury, and he looked around to get his bearings. Snow pelted him. He couldn’t tell where he was. Up ahead, he saw a majestic pine tree soaring to the sky. Its boughs, like arms, were beckoning to him, “Come, come,” it whispered. “Find safety under me!”
With great effort he tried to reach the tree, but the storm intensified. His legs became heavy as lead. He couldn’t move them. He panicked. Would he ever be safe?
Blinking away sleep and the dream, Josh opened his eyes. He was back in his bedroom! Safe. His heart was pounding like a hammer, but he knew it was only a bad dream brought on by the morning’s events. He took a couple of deep breaths to calm himself and pulled the covers closer to his chin. Yes, he was safe! Protected in the room he shared with his two little sisters, who were somewhere off in the house playing with their Christmas presents. Although groggy, he decided he should be out there too opening his presents, but he was still too sleepy and weak.
Lying quietly, he enjoyed the luxury of being in his sisters’ bed. There wasn’t much space in the small room, so as the oldest, he was stuck with the mattress on the floor while they got the bed. But because he nearly froze to death, his mom tucked him in the warmth of the girls’ bed.
Josh smiled as he remembered the discussion his mom and aunt had over the room. His mom thought that even though it was a closet, it would make a great kids’ bedroom.
“But it couldn’t have been a closet,” his aunt had reasoned when she first saw it. “It has a window.”
“I think it was a big walk-in closet. Look, it has shelves and hooks.”
His mom and aunt had argued about this for a while because the apartment they were renting together was once part of a farmhouse, and it had lots of weird nooks and crannies. The owners had created three apartments with different layouts, and this one had either one large walk-in closet or one tiny bedroom.
“Well, no matter,” his mom had said with a wave of her hand. “We’ll have to use the room as a bedroom for the kids. Josh will just have to sleep on the floor. We can’t get two beds and a desk in here at the same time, but there are some long shelves here we can use to put their clothes on.”
“Oh, it will work out fine,” Aunt Katherine had said. “It may be a little drafty for ol’Josh though.” She messed his hair and laughed. “I’ll make sure you have plenty of blankets!”
He checked the floor by the side of the bed for his mattress. Somebody had slid it and the blankets under his sisters’ bed. He hoped he could stay in their bed for the night and wondered briefly if his sisters would have to sleep on the couch.
When he looked back up, he gaped in astonishment at the end of the bed. There, sitting at the desk that was jammed between the foot of the bed and the wall, was a small figure. This small person was fiddling with Josh’s little toy dinosaur and watching him. Already rattled from the morning events and his bad dream, Josh didn’t know what to think.
“Hey, it’s about time! I thought you’d be stuck in that snowstorm forever!”
Josh could only stare as the young boy hopped off the chair and dragged it around the end of the bed. He carefully positioned the chair beside Josh and perched on the edge of the seat. With eyes as big as a baby owl’s, he stared at Josh intently, appraising him. “Whew. You’re okay. You had me worried there for a minute.”
Josh looked closely at the boy. Was he dreaming still? It couldn’t be Joey, could it? When his mom put him to bed earlier, the doctor had given her some kind of medicine that she poured in a little plastic cup for him to drink. It tasted like sweet, purple grapes. The taste made him gag. His mom pleaded with him to swallow, which he finally did. It made him bleary and finally put him to sleep. Maybe that was why he was having odd dreams about snowflakes attacking him. Was this vision of Joey a result of the medicine too? Was Joey a hallucination? Was he for real, or was Josh dreaming?
“Of course I’m okay,” Josh said defensively. He was still confused. “When did you get here?”
The boy leaned back, tilted the chair on its back legs, and put his feet up on Josh’s bed. He crossed his arms snuggly over his sheep wool vest and giggled like a demented elf. Joey was here again! This was just too strange. Josh wanted to rub his eyes to make sure he was seeing straight.
“So, when did you get here?” Josh asked again. He propped himself up on his elbow to get a better look.
“I’ve been here awhile, but I didn’t want to wake you up, so I waited for you to come around. I think that medicine was pretty strong.” Almost as an afterthought, Joey added, “That was some weird storm you were in.”
How did Joey know about that awful medicine, and how did he know about Josh being in the snowstorm? Was he talking about his dream, or was he talking about him actually getting lost in the blizzard earlier this morning? Josh opened his mouth to ask, but a strong odor of wet dog wafted around him like a damp cloud. Only Joey smelled like that. It was a combination of the lamb wool vest he wore, those strange leggings, and raggedy shirt. Tentatively, Josh stretched his hand out from under the covers and grabbed Joey’s foot. The boy yelped in surprise.
“Sorry, Joey. I … I thought I might still be dreaming.”
This really was Joey, who popped in last night—Christmas Eve—to visit Josh in this same bedroom while his sisters slept soundly in bed and he was on his mattress on the drafty, cold floor, and his mom and aunt sang Christmas carols in the kitchen. Joey was the one who spent hours with Josh, telling him all about the first Christmas because he claimed he was there! This young boy literally appeared in his room without anyone knowing he was in the apartment. Josh couldn’t figure it out. Joey seemed to know so much about the past and the present. He was a kid he’d never met before, but Joey seemed to know all there was to know about him. And here he was again, grinning at him like a little crazy monkey.
“Hey, Josh,” Joey whispered and snapped the chair forward. His eyes grew bigger and rounder than they already were. “I know where Mr. George is hiding.”
Leaning in close to Josh, Joey continued to smile. “You know that short, round bush that’s beside the pine tree to the left of the shed? That’s where he is!” Joey uncrossed his arms and smoothed his wild, black curls, pleased with himself.
Josh groaned. He even knew about Mr. George! “It’s because of Mr. George that I’m in bed in the first place!”
“And in the second place?”
“In the second place,” Josh said, sighing, “it wasn’t such a bright idea to hide him with a snowstorm coming. I should’ve known I’d never find him.”
“Yeah,” agreed Joey. “It was kinda stupid. Who hides a snowman during a snowstorm?”
Josh felt embarrassed that Joey knew he’d gotten lost in his own backyard, but the snow was so thick in the whipping wind, it was blinding.
Joey nodded. “It must have been pretty scary for everyone, but God took care of you, for sure.”
Josh nodded in agreement as he recalled the events of the morning. It didn’t seem real. He remembered while he was hiding under the tree from the battering snow, he prayed to Jesus. His fear almost got the best of him. But he had faith that God would take care of everything. And so He had. One minute he was almost dead, and the next minute, he was safe. Now, it was late afternoon, and Joey was happily talking with Josh once again like nothing had happened.
“Does my mom know you’re here?” Josh asked with concern.
Joey shook his head, with a smile a mile wide. How did he sneak in under Mom’s nose again? Josh remembered how shocked he was last night when he rolled over on his mattress and saw a young boy sitting on the floor under the windowsill. How did this little kid with no hat, no gloves, and only a wool vest over a threadbare shirt, and sandals with wool socks get around in snowstorms? How was he able to get in and out of the house to Josh’s bedroom, past his mom, aunt, and sisters? Two times, no less?
Josh narrowed his eyes and pursed his lips in deep thought. Was this boy a ghost or an angel? He wanted to ask but was afraid of what the answer might be. Josh was tempted to touch him again but decided not to. He already learned that Joey’s foot was real.
Returning to the present, Josh sat up, leaned against the wall, and asked a little apprehensively, “So, you know what happened to me this morning?”
“Yes, and like I said, it was pretty dumb going out in a snowstorm!”
“Yeah,” Josh admitted. “I guess I got caught up in the excitement.” He plopped back down on his back. “But I’m feeling better now, just a little tired. I’m glad you came by. I must have fallen asleep on you last night. I remember your telling me the story of the first Christmas and about your shepherd friends, David and Luke, and you started to tell me how you all were going to follow Jesus and his parents to Egypt—” Josh began sheepishly. “I guess I fell asleep while you were talking. When I woke up this morning, I wondered what happened to you. I didn’t mean to be rude—”
Knowing Joey, he could have gone anywhere. He was like a spirit or something. He had an uncanny way of appearing, disappearing, and appearing again.
“Oh, no problem. I know it was late and all,” Joey said with a shrug. “After you fell asleep, I decided I’d better get home to my Father. But I came back today to see how you were doing. If you want, I can finish my story from last night.”
Josh snuggled back under his covers. He was still a little drowsy, probably from the medication. He would always remember the story Joey told him about the very first Christmas.
“I have to stay in bed before they let me up again anyway, and there’s no TV in here, so yes, I’d like to hear your story.”
Joey smiled. “Okay, so you remember my shepherd friends David, Luke, and I were in the fields with our sheep, when the angel appeared in the sky and told us that Jesus, our Savior, was born in Bethlehem? After we got over our fright of seeing thousands of angels hovering above, I left my sleeping sheep in the fields and went down the path to the stable in the cave. I left without David and Luke—they were taking too much time checking on their sheep! I just took off; I was so excited. And when I got there, I saw the baby Jesus with his mother, Mary, and her husband, Joseph.”
Josh nodded, recalling the whole scene as it had been told last night. Mary invited Joey in to see the baby, and he’d been thrilled to see the newborn Jesus sleeping peacefully in his mother’s arms. A little later, Joey’s two shepherd friends, David and Luke, arrived, but already a group of poor people were gathered around the front of the stable, looking in at Mary and her baby. Joseph allowed them to come closer to see the baby, and it was wonderful. David and Luke played their flutes, and everyone enjoyed the night. It became a party to welcome the newborn King!
While Josh relished hearing the story, he still found it confusing. After all, here was Joey, a kid his own age who appeared from nowhere to visit him, telling Josh all about the first Christmas as if he had been there! Joey had seen and heard the angels, touched little Jesus’ face, and talked with Mary and Joseph. He was a shepherd, and his friends were shepherds, he said. He knew everything because he was there! Joey was there, and now he was here in Josh’s bedroom! How could this be? This was all too strange.
As soon as Joey finishes his story, Josh told himself, I’ve got to ask him what he is. A ghost? An angel? The thing was, if he was an angel, where were his wings? But, maybe they didn’t all have wings.
Joey interrupted Josh’s thoughts. “Remember how I told you that a couple of years later, an angel appeared in a dream to tell the wise men who visited Jesus to go home a different way? They had to take a different route from the way they came so that Herod, the crazy king who wanted to kill Jesus, wouldn’t catch them and force them to tell him where to find Jesus. Well, they didn’t have to be told twice. They knew that King Herod was a vicious murderer and liar, so after the angel warned them, they took off on their camels with their servants and left gold, spices, and other gifts with Mary and Joseph.”
Joey emphasized that not only did an angel warn the wise men to leave in a hurry, but the angel also spoke to Joseph in a dream too. The angel directed Joseph, “Rise, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.”
“See,” Joey explained, “what the angel said is written right here in the Book of Matthew, chapter 2, verse 13.”
Joey pointed to the words in the Bible he was holding. Josh followed Joey’s finger to the printed paragraph. Another surprise! He hadn’t seen Joey with a Bible a moment ago. Where did that come from? His curiosity got the best of him, and he reached for the book spread open on Joey’s lap. Joey handed it to him. It was heavy. Thumbing to the place where Joey had pointed, he read that sure enough, an angel did tell Joseph to leave with his family and escape Herod by going to Egypt. Josh handed the book back to Joey, who put it on the floor by his chair.
Sitting straighter, Joey became more animated as he talked. “Remember how I told you that King Herod was a mental case, a mad, blood-thirsty ruler? This is what I found out. He was so crazy that he even killed some of his own family! Can you imagine that? He was just awful. The Romans made him king of Judea, which was sort of like a state or region in the Middle East. Bethlehem was a city in Judea, and he had power to do whatever he wanted in that town, so he sent his soldiers to Bethlehem to find Jesus. He was afraid that Jesus would grow up to take over as king, and he didn’t want that to happen. Jesus was a threat to him and his royal family, so he wanted to get rid of him.”
Josh went pale. Herod was like a serial killer, only he didn’t have to hide. He could kill whomever he wanted. No wonder the wise men and Jesus’ family ran! The man was evil!
“The good news is that when he died, he died in a really bad way. I won’t give you all the details because it’s too gross, but an ancient historian named Josephus said worms killed him!”
“Worms?” Josh asked incredulously.
“Yeah. They were eating him from the inside.” Joey pointed to his stomach and grimaced.
“Eew,” groaned Josh. “How gross! Worms in his belly? Nibbling his guts?” Josh put his hand to his mouth and laughed nervously. It would take him awhile to get rid of that picture of the evil king, disintegrating like one of those creatures in the mummy movies.
Worms and all, this story was getting interesting. Leaning on one elbow, head in hand, the pillow snuggled behind his back, Josh urged Joey to continue.

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