Shalom!

I believe the idea for this tale was given to me by my Father, to share with all the world. Not quite all the world here, but I hope you'll be touched or at least enjoy it. :)

Happy Reading!

Elluviel

Edit: This is NOT a romance or anything near one, just to clear up the understanding of a reviewer. :)

The man's sweat glistened in the faint moonlight as he tossed and turned in his bed, his facial features writhing from the intensity of his dreams.

He heard chilling shrieks of infants, wailing of women, and saw the ruthless plunge of the spear into young flesh. Flashes of babies ripped from their mother's arms as they were slaughtered. The thundering voice of King Herod, Kill every male infant in Bethlehem, rung in his ears.

Then the scene changed. It was the dead of night, in the middle of endless desert. A donkey, led at an impossible pace by a man whose face was set in determination. A woman rode on it, her face twisted in anguish as she held a two-year-old son in her arms.

"How many mothers will not have a son tonight? Because of us."

The father glanced back. "Do not worry. God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

She swallowed as she held her son closer. "Where will we go? Egypt is a foreign country. We will be lost, with nowhere to find rest, and the danger…"

The father pursed his lips, but both he and the mother were startled when their child suddenly announced, "Trust in God. He will provide. We will be safe."

As they stared at him in disbelief, the child, it seemed, stared straight at the man. A voice rippled through his dreams. Await this family at the eastern gate of the city. Be there every day until they arrive.

Josiah sat up straight with a gasp, panting heavily. He glanced at the bed next to him, and slowly sunk into his sheets when he saw Judith was still sleeping peacefully.

His dream could only mean one thing. The voice he heard was the voice of God, a clear message that he was to take this family, apparently an important one, into his home until it was safe for them to leave.

The next morning, as Josiah prepared food for the day, his neighbor Amos peeked in on the way to the fields.

"Going on a trip, Josiah? Can't see how you can afford it, this being the high season for carpentry. You know, rods and yokes and stuff?"

Josiah kept quietly wrapping up pieces of bread.

"Well, where're you going?"

"I am going to the city walls."

Amos raised an eyebrow. "To do what?"

"To wait for a family."

"Oh, some relatives?"

Josiah shrugged. "I don't know."

The neighbor crossed his arms. "You're going to waste a day of work to wait for a family that you don't know."

"Yes. I had a dream from God to tell me to wait until they arrive here."

"Until they arrive? Were they Jewish?"

Josiah shrugged again. "I think so. All I know is that they're coming from Bethlehem."

"Bethlehem? Do you have any idea how long it takes to travel from Bethlehem to Alexandria? Weeks at least!"

Josiah tied the cloth around the bread tightly, glaring at him sharply. "I will wait until they arrive." He suddenly had an idea, and his eyes twinkled as he announced, "I must trust in God. He will provide."

"You're crazy!" Amos declared.

Josiah smiled. "Thank you. Now don't you have your flocks to watch over?"

He scooped his little girl into his arms and stared at Amos pointedly until he left. Josiah picked up the basket of food and lifted Judith onto his shoulders.

"We're going to the outskirts of the city to wait for a family. Won't that be fun? They have a son about your age."

But day after day, as Josiah strained his eyes into the desert sands to catch a glimpse of a man or a donkey, he saw nothing.

"Still wasting your time?" his neighbor would say every morning.

"That dream was from God, and I would be a fool to ignore him," he would reply.

Amos would snort. "Fine, fine, dreamer."

"Joseph's brothers said the same to him before he became Potiphar's righthand official."

But after a fortnight, even Josiah began to doubt himself. His savings had begun to run out. He would need to start working soon. Would the family ever come?

"One more day, Judith," he told his daughter as he put her to bed. "Then I'm going to resume working."

Still, after the day went by and nothing happened, his heart wasn't easy. If the dream really was from God and he disobeyed it, woe to him! But the little boy's innocent voice kept echoing in his head.

"Trust in God. He will provide."

"Still wasting your time?" Amos asked in disbelief. "It's been more than two weeks! You've got to get working, Josiah!"

He pursed his lips. "Something tells me that I can't stop. I have to trust in God to take care of us."

"God helps those who helps themselves."

"He also helps those who obey him," Josiah retorted. "I'm going to wait at the city outskirts until the family comes, and it's final."

"If the family comes."

"Would you please stay out of this if you're not going to help?"

"I can help," Amos argued. "It's not healthy for a young girl to stay in the sun and dust all day. My wife can watch her."

Josiah exhaled with relief. "You're too kind. Yes, please, thank you."

Amos smiled. "Well, what are neighbors for?"

But day after day passed with no sign of the family. Josiah prayed desperately every moment of the day for God to at least provide him with money for food and taxes, but none came. He slept fitfully every night and lived with constant worry until Amos declared, "Why, Josiah, I do believe you are getting yourself ill! What do you eat every day?"

He waved a hand. "I'm fine, really."

"Do you call pealing, burnt skin and a gaunt figure fine? You're suffering from too much time in the sun with not enough cover, food, and water. Even a simple shepherd like me knows that."

Josiah set his face like flint. "I must obey the Lord at whatever cost to me."

"What about Judith? If you die there will be no one left to take care of her."

"You, perhaps?"

Amos threw his hands up. "I'm working hard to provide for my own family, Josiah! I'm barely scraping by. You were doing well for yourself and your daughter when you were working, but now…" He shook his head. "You're going to kill yourself! I'm serious."

Josiah crossed his arms. "If I die, I die. God has a reason for everything."

"Josiah! There comes a point when extreme faith is foolish! How do you expect to take care of the family – if they ever come – when you are practically dying and you barely have any money left?"

"God."

"Oh, that's enough!"

That night, Josiah wept into his bed. "God, show me what I'm supposed to do," he fervently prayed. "Show me, oh Lord. I myself can do nothing, but you can fulfill the impossible. What am I to do?"

He jumped as he felt Judith crawl into bed next to him. She didn't say anything, but simply smiled, an innocent disk of joy.

Josiah sighed, stroking her head. "If only your mother had survived giving birth to you," he murmured. "She would give me advice."

The next morning, he looked to prepare food for the day, but found nothing. He had run out of food, and after a quick search, had reached the last of his money.

Amos shook his head. "My wife can feed Judith for a day, but beyond that…Josiah, you have serious problems."

He stared at him stolidly. "Pray for me. Pray for the family. Can you do this?"

His neighbor blinked. "O-of course. You will be in my prayers always."

So it was that Josiah found himself at the eastern outskirts of Alexandria, the same place he always went to. He settled himself in the sands, prepared for another long day of watching, when his eyes suddenly picked up a dark outline of a man.

Josiah leapt to his feet, and peered forward excitedly. As they slowly plodded closer, he nearly danced for joy. Yes, there was the man! Yes, the donkey, the woman, the child in her lap!

He ran as fast as his old, worn out body could take him, until he arrived panting and sweating to the family.

The man raised his staff threateningly, but Josiah shook his head as he exclaimed, "No, no! I bring you no harm! I am Josiah! I was sent by God in a dream to provide a place for you here in Egypt! You will be safe from Herod!"

The man widened his eyes, but the woman slid down from the donkey and embraced him, weeping. "Thank God! I do not know how you would know that except by the Lord's will. Bless you, Josiah! Bless you!"

After a moment's greeting, the woman dipped head. "I am Mary. This is my husband Joseph, and our son Jesus."

The boy smiled. "I told you that God would provide!"

Joseph ruffled his curly head. "Yes, you did."

Josiah held the donkey's rope. "Come, come! The sun is hot. We will go straight to my house."

Soon, he ushered the family inside. "I am a poor man, you see, with not a scrap of food or money. But I have shelter, and that is all I can give you."

Joseph thanked him warmly. "We have simple needs. But, you see, we have some money. Enough for the four of us for a few months or so."

Josiah widened his eyes. "A few months?"

Mary laughed. "Yes, God has been good." She looked fondly toward her son.

"I hope that an additional person will not be too much of a burden?"

Joseph blinked. "Oh, of course, your wife –"

"No, my wife has passed on. The fifth person is my daughter." He quickly brought over Judith, who immediately wiggled out of his arms and ran to Jesus.

The parents smiled. "Such a beautiful girl! And now Jesus will have a friend. You do not know how indebted we are to you, Josiah."

He smiled back. "No debt is necessary. I give you lodging, you provide money for food. We will be family."

The five of them lived in simple happiness for a few days until one morning Josiah woke up with agonizing pain.

His screams awoke Mary and Joseph, who were at his side in minutes.

"Josiah?"

"Gaaaah!"

They exchanged glances, but looked behind as Amos rushed in, groaning at the sight of his friend. "He should have listened to me! I fear it is too late!"

"It's never too late," Mary firmly declared. "What is wrong with him?"

"Sun. He waited in the desert sun for you for weeks."

"For us?"

"I'm surprised he didn't feel the pain sooner. We must get water!"

"A physician?" Joseph suggested.

The neighbor nodded. "I will try to find one."

But though they bathed his red, blistered skin in what water they could get, Josiah still writhed and screamed.

"Can you hear me?" Mary cried anxiously.

He couldn't, and soon he stopped screaming.

"Where is that man?" she yelled. "We need a physician!"

"N-no, we don't," Joseph realized with horror.

Mary looked to Josiah, and swallowed back her tears. The man was no longer moving, and his horribly chapped face was rested in a look of peace and utter fulfillment.

Amos returned, out of breath. "I finally found…one. Oh no."

Mary could not sleep that night. She turned, and groaned, and turned again until Joseph laid a hand on her shoulder. "Mary, if you need to talk, I am here."

She wiped her face. "I don't understand, Joseph! Why would God allow such things? First the babies in Bethlehem. And now this righteous man who was following his commands! Why let his servant die?"

Joseph pursed his lips. "We cannot know why the Lord does what he does."

Mary exhaled. "Well, at least one thing is clear. We must take the child Judith with us."

Joseph started. "What? Judith? Why?"

"Amos clearly cannot raise her. He has his children to take care of. We have the means to make sure Judith has a happy life. She will have Jesus as a companion. And I will teach them both the scriptures."

"But really, Mary, do you think-"

"I have decided." And she fell asleep right away.

A few weeks later, an angel of the Lord told Joseph in dream that it was safe to return home. Amos inherited Josiah's house, and Mary and Joseph took Judith with them. They were finally able to settle in Nazareth, but Mary never forgot the words of the man Simeon in the temple.

"Behold, this child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too."