Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / December 16, 2018 | Discover The Wonder - Kim's Story

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December 16, 2018 | Discover The Wonder - Kim's Story · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Shalom.
0:02
SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
0:04
SPEAKER_00: They asked me to come and tell you about the week that changed my life, mine and my wife Malika's, that is.
0:13
SPEAKER_00: My name is Kim, but you know me better as the innkeeper.
0:20
SPEAKER_00: No booze.
0:21
SPEAKER_00: That's an improvement.
0:24
SPEAKER_00: Innkeeping is not an option in my family.
0:27
SPEAKER_00: It's uh something you're born into.
0:29
SPEAKER_00: In my country, you uh you can't exchange property.
0:34
SPEAKER_00: You're it's yours for as long as your family lives, and so this property that I take care of has been in my family for a thousand years.
0:43
SPEAKER_00: You've you've heard of King David, right?
0:45
SPEAKER_00: Well, he gave it to my very great-grandfather years ago.
0:53
SPEAKER_00: You can read about it in in the book.
0:56
SPEAKER_00: Honest, if if you want to, uh, but he gave it to him as a way of saying thank you for my great-grandfather Kim Ham helping save his life when there was an insurrection.
1:09
SPEAKER_00: His own son Absalom and some others tried to kill him.
1:12
SPEAKER_00: And so my very, very great-grandfather, you know, got a reward.
1:16
SPEAKER_00: David gave him some property in his own home city of David, Bethlehem.
1:21
SPEAKER_00: Good property, good land.
1:24
SPEAKER_00: And eventually, not, probably not him, but one of his ancestors decided to make something of it.
1:30
SPEAKER_00: He saw that the property was right on the main road from Jerusalem, leading all the way down to Egypt.
1:37
SPEAKER_00: And so he built a little uh caravansery, an inn, a lodge, so that caravans going through could stop for the night.
1:46
SPEAKER_00: Tired people and their animals could check in, get some rest, eat some food, get some shut-eye.
1:53
SPEAKER_00: And that's where it all started.
1:56
SPEAKER_00: Every generation it got handed down to the oldest son who added a few touches to make it a little nicer.
2:04
SPEAKER_00: And uh by the time of Jeremiah, hundreds of years later, who mentions it in his book, check it out, uh Kim Am's Lodge was uh pretty much a well-known place to travelers all over the country.
2:18
SPEAKER_00: Oh, it wasn't your fancy Hilton or your even your Motel 6, but we'd leave the oil lamp light on for you.
2:28
SPEAKER_00: And uh if you'd come into uh Bethlehem, you'd see we were looking like a stone fort atop the western hills.
2:36
SPEAKER_00: And and by the way, eventually it came down to me.
2:41
SPEAKER_00: They handed me the key, they shortened the name from Kim Ham to Kim, that's my name, and it's still standing today in my time, which is kind of surprising, really.
2:53
SPEAKER_00: I'm amazed because since the days of Jeremiah, 600 years ago, we've had all sorts of armies coming through, knocking things down, Babylonians and uh Greeks and Ptolemies and latest uh the Romans.
3:08
SPEAKER_00: But you know what they say, everybody, even a Babylonian, can use a good night's sleep, so they've sort of left it standing.
3:16
SPEAKER_00: And I gotta tell you, it's the nicest inn in all of Bethlehem.
3:21
SPEAKER_00: Of course, it's the only inn in all of Bethlehem as well.
3:25
SPEAKER_00: But if you come up to our inn and you're invited, if you're traveling through behind those high stone walls, you'll see there's a courtyard.
3:32
SPEAKER_00: There's room enough for you and your animals, and I have a little bit of carpentry skill, and I built a score of rooms around the inside wall, and and now the animals they have to go down below.
3:43
SPEAKER_00: I I can't take the smell or the noise inside my walls, but there's a big cave on our property just over the hill, and and and you take your animals down there and we'll keep you uh for the night.
3:56
SPEAKER_00: There was one time, just once, I let a man keep a sheep with him, and my he came to me and I could tell it was probably a sheep that he'd raised, and he was taken up to the temple to sacrifice, and he begged to ask if he could bring the sheep in with him.
4:12
SPEAKER_00: And finally I said, Well, you know, I guess I've never had a sheep steal my oil lamps or take the, try to steal the blanket from off my bed, never had to kick a sheep out in the middle of the night for being drunk or disorderly, or try to catch up with him when he was running away not paying a bill.
4:28
SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, your sheep is welcome in my inn.
4:30
SPEAKER_00: And if he'll vouch for you, you're welcome too.
4:33
SPEAKER_00: Fellow paid ahead of time.
4:37
SPEAKER_00: But I know you didn't invite me here to give me an advertisement about my lodge, though you are welcome.
4:45
SPEAKER_00: And uh service here nowadays.
4:50
SPEAKER_00: What kind of a cup is this?
5:00
SPEAKER_00: No, I came to tell you about the week that changed our lives, which is funny.
5:05
SPEAKER_00: I uh would have never guessed that it was uh gonna be anything different because everything seemed normal, which is to say it was busy.
5:16
SPEAKER_00: In fact, this is the I guess the I guess we were busier than we had ever been before.
5:21
SPEAKER_00: The census, you know.
5:22
SPEAKER_00: Census.
5:23
SPEAKER_00: We have census in, and you have census here, I guess.
5:26
SPEAKER_00: Ours are a little different.
5:28
SPEAKER_00: About every 15 years, they don't ask all those personal questions you get asked, but they just want to know, register your name and your property so emperor far off in Rome can decide how much to tax you.
5:40
SPEAKER_00: Oh, we Jews hate I we hate taxes, we Jews do more than you do, I'm sure.
5:46
SPEAKER_00: And between temple taxes and the worst is paying taxes to foreigners who tell you what to do, tell you you have to wait in line, tell you you have to register your name and your property, and uh anyway, we hate it.
6:01
SPEAKER_00: Caesar knows we hate it, but he doesn't have to do anything.
6:06
SPEAKER_00: He just assigns it to the king in charge of the country because he wants to know how many people are in all of his countries and how much property they have and how much can he tax them.
6:16
SPEAKER_00: Caesar, in my days, Augustus is his name, and the king that has to do the hard lifting is named Herod.
6:23
SPEAKER_00: Herod the Great, I think you call him.
6:27
SPEAKER_00: Herod the Great.
6:28
SPEAKER_00: I suppose he is great at fighting wars, great at building things, great at being cruel, if you ask me.
6:37
SPEAKER_00: Paranoid guy.
6:38
SPEAKER_00: Crazy.
6:40
SPEAKER_00: He thinks everybody, including his own family, is out to poison his food or steal his throne, so he's killed his wife, killed his three sons, killed other people.
6:50
SPEAKER_00: I hear word got back to Augustus in Rome, he just laughed.
6:52
SPEAKER_00: He said it's safer to be Herod's pig than his son, which is probably true.
6:56
SPEAKER_00: Herod thinks of himself as half Jewish, so he doesn't eat pig.
7:02
SPEAKER_00: So pigs are safe, but his sons aren't.
7:04
SPEAKER_00: Neither are those little babies born in my town.
7:07
SPEAKER_00: But that's a later story.
7:10
SPEAKER_00: You know, when the wise men came through, told Herod they wanted his, there's a baby being born who was gonna be king.
7:16
SPEAKER_00: Again, that's it's not my story.
7:21
SPEAKER_00: So Herod had sent heralds throughout all of the cities and villages all over Israel announcing you gotta go back to your ancestor, ancestry home, you gotta go back to your tribe, you gotta go back to your ancestor's village, and you gotta register, and you gotta list your property, and you gotta do it within six months.
7:40
SPEAKER_00: Which was really good for what you call the hotel business.
7:44
SPEAKER_00: Because remember, everybody in the whole land of Israel had come from around where I live.
7:52
SPEAKER_00: They'd all come from those southern two tribes, Judah and Benjamin.
7:56
SPEAKER_00: Those northern ten tribes, they'd all disappeared 700 years ago.
7:59
SPEAKER_00: So the other two tribes had spread out.
8:01
SPEAKER_00: So now the whole country had to empty out, come down south near Jerusalem and Bethlehem, they had to find a place to stay.
8:07
SPEAKER_00: They could stay with their relatives, or if there was no room, they had to.
8:11
SPEAKER_00: Well, they came to my place, didn't they?
8:14
SPEAKER_00: And so all day long we're getting knocks on the door.
8:18
SPEAKER_00: And we were full.
8:19
SPEAKER_00: I mean, by mid-morning every day, we hardly had any vacancies anyway, because Jewish and Roman officials stayed at my place all six months long.
8:28
SPEAKER_00: By mid morning, I was turning people away.
8:32
SPEAKER_00: Oh, it was good for business.
8:38
SPEAKER_00: Not so good for the marriage.
8:41
SPEAKER_00: We we never, I don't know that we ever had a great marriage, Malika and me.
8:53
SPEAKER_00: The census was good, like I said, for business, but not for the marriage.
8:57
SPEAKER_00: I knew it, she thought.
8:59
SPEAKER_00: It was no mystery.
9:00
SPEAKER_00: She thought I loved the inn more than I loved her, and I cared more for business.
9:05
SPEAKER_00: But I mean, what was I supposed to do?
9:09
SPEAKER_00: The inn wouldn't run itself.
9:12
SPEAKER_00: It seemed like every moment from morning till night, I was either letting people in or answering their questions or cleaning up after them or taking their money or going to the door to say, no, we don't have any room, or and the truth was, you know, it was more fun to stand around talking friendly with our guests than it was to talk to her.
9:36
SPEAKER_00: So when she'd say, Got a minute, she'd say, got a minute, Kim, I'd say, I'm busy right now.
9:45
SPEAKER_00: And she'd say, just loud enough so as I could hear, always too busy.
9:51
SPEAKER_00: Always too busy.
9:53
SPEAKER_00: I just shake my head.
9:54
SPEAKER_00: She she didn't understand.
9:58
SPEAKER_00: Malika, did I tell you her name Malika?
10:00
SPEAKER_00: It's one of the prettiest Hebrew names there is, means queen.
10:05
SPEAKER_00: I suppose in the beginning she was a queen in my heart, but that had gone away long since.
10:14
SPEAKER_00: Queens don't nag their husbands the way she nagged me.
10:19
SPEAKER_00: Oh my.
10:21
SPEAKER_00: Always on me.
10:23
SPEAKER_00: But I used to get her back for it.
10:27
SPEAKER_00: Sitting around after supper, or even during supper, you know, in front of the men, I'd I'd change, I'd start calling her Peg.
10:34
SPEAKER_00: I'd say, Peg, bring the guests some more wine.
10:36
SPEAKER_00: Peg, bring the guests some more water.
10:38
SPEAKER_00: And finally, one of the guests would bite.
10:40
SPEAKER_00: He'd say, Peg.
10:41
SPEAKER_00: I didn't thought you said the name Malika.
10:44
SPEAKER_00: I said, Yeah, that's my nickname for her.
10:46
SPEAKER_00: I said, You've heard of that uh horse the Greeks talk about, Pegasus?
10:51
SPEAKER_00: The flying horse?
10:54
SPEAKER_00: They said, sure, we've all heard of Pegasus.
10:57
SPEAKER_00: I said, Well, the short for Pegasus is Peg, and Pegasus is an immortal horse, and my wife is an eternal nag.
11:05
SPEAKER_00: Same thing.
11:06
SPEAKER_00: They used to just buckle over on that one.
11:09
SPEAKER_00: I know it wasn't very nice of me.
11:13
SPEAKER_00: But boy, she could nag.
11:15
SPEAKER_00: It got so even the sound of her voice would just go right through me.
11:19
SPEAKER_00: And late at night, I'd prefer to sit out with the men, even if they were half drunk around a dying fire, than to try to slip in quiet next to her.
11:26
SPEAKER_00: Because it seemed like she'd always wake up and let me have it.
11:30
SPEAKER_00: So I started going in real loud late at night, like I was half drunk and yelling at her for a kiss, and she'd pretend like she was asleep.
11:37
SPEAKER_00: So that worked out better.
11:41
SPEAKER_00: And she had her ways of getting back at me.
11:45
SPEAKER_00: She'd be sitting with the women after dinner, and they'd be talking, of course, as women do about love and marriage, and she'd finally get around to it, and I'd know it was coming.
11:55
SPEAKER_00: She'd say, Well, you know, I've learned in my life that a good husband has three qualities.
11:59
SPEAKER_00: He's loving, and he's caring, and he's understanding.
12:03
SPEAKER_00: And they'd all sigh.
12:05
SPEAKER_00: They knew what was coming next.
12:06
SPEAKER_00: She was going to say she had that kind of husband, but she'd nod at me and she'd say, My husband there, he's got all but three of those qualities.
12:14
SPEAKER_00: So, of course, being headstrong, both of us, it came down to a stalemate with emphasis on stale.
12:21
SPEAKER_00: And I began thinking of divorce, which was a shame, really, because in many ways Malika was a good woman.
12:29
SPEAKER_00: But and then came that week, close to the end of the census, when our marriage, which was sort of at rock bottom, seemed like it flipped around and started moving back up.
12:43
SPEAKER_00: The week started out normal in the morning.
12:49
SPEAKER_00: Repairs.
12:50
SPEAKER_00: We had some timber, some pine that was rotting, and I was trying to repair that.
12:55
SPEAKER_00: All afternoon I was making food for a hundred people.
13:00
SPEAKER_00: And then always stopping every few minutes to go to the door where people were knocking, asking for a place, and me telling them it was all full up.
13:08
SPEAKER_00: Because I'd look around and I'd see uh the those rooms that I'd put, somebody in every room, and there was places all around the fire.
13:17
SPEAKER_00: There wasn't a bit of room.
13:20
SPEAKER_00: And that first day of the week I'm telling you about got close to supper time, and there was a loud hammering on the door, just a banging like they're trying to break it down.
13:29
SPEAKER_00: And as I went over to the door, I complimented myself that I had reinforced the door.
13:34
SPEAKER_00: And I opened the window in the door, and I looked out and I sighed.
13:37
SPEAKER_00: My heart sank.
13:38
SPEAKER_00: It was a pompous Levite I knew, a holy man in his own mind, from Jerusalem with his servants behind him.
13:46
SPEAKER_00: Open the door, he said.
13:49
SPEAKER_00: I said, I'm sorry, sir.
13:51
SPEAKER_00: Through the window, I said, I don't have any room.
13:53
SPEAKER_00: Let me in, you Samaritan dog, he said.
13:56
SPEAKER_00: We'll stay in the courtyard.
13:57
SPEAKER_00: I said, honestly, sir, I don't even have any room in the courtyard.
14:02
SPEAKER_00: He said, Open the door now, or I'll make sure your taxes are doubled this year.
14:08
SPEAKER_00: Well, being a good businessman, I opened the door.
14:11
SPEAKER_00: Let him in, he dropped some silver at my feet, his servants followed him, he went over to the fire, kicked the bedrolls out of the way, motioned his servants to put down their stuff.
14:20
SPEAKER_00: And the servants went outside again to stable their horse and his horse and their donkeys, and I led them down over the edge of the hill to the cave.
14:31
SPEAKER_00: It was already starting to be full of animals, but uh, you know, animals can always make way for a few more, so I let them in, and just to stay away from the Levite a little while longer, I just breathed in that strong odor of uh animal and fresh hay.
14:52
SPEAKER_00: Showed them where to put their animals, and then it was supper time, and I went up.
14:59
SPEAKER_00: We always serve a good supper at our place.
15:03
SPEAKER_00: Just letting you know.
15:06
SPEAKER_00: And we sat around and ate supper, and afterwards, Malika and I went in to wash the dishes.
15:11
SPEAKER_00: We'd gotten so as we could do it without even saying a word to each other.
15:18
SPEAKER_00: And just finished when there was a light knock at the door.
15:23
SPEAKER_00: So I went over to it and I opened it up.
15:25
SPEAKER_00: It was getting dark, but I could see there was uh one tall figure there, and then a smaller one hunched over on top of a donkey.
15:34
SPEAKER_00: I said, I'm sorry, and uh tall and straightened up, and I could see he was very young.
15:40
SPEAKER_00: He was just a young man, and he said to me, Sir, please, do you have any room?
15:45
SPEAKER_00: His voice was filled with exhaustion.
15:50
SPEAKER_00: We'd be willing, he said, to sleep on the ground.
15:55
SPEAKER_00: I said, I'm sorry, uh we just don't have any room.
16:03
SPEAKER_00: Loud voice from behind me uh yelled out, send them away, there's no room.
16:11
SPEAKER_00: I recognized it as the voice of the fat man, the Levite, and I opened the door and I said, uh, look, you can see there's there's just not a bit of space, and there wasn't a bit of space.
16:27
SPEAKER_00: I thought the little figure on top uh turned out to be a girl, looked up and sort of sagged against him, and he turned pale and he said to me, Sir, really, if there's anything at all you can do, anything, any idea you've had, we tried every place.
16:41
SPEAKER_00: We can't find a place.
16:46
SPEAKER_00: I know about this time, I know what you're thinking.
16:49
SPEAKER_00: You're thinking uh what all the plays and all the songs have said for years that Innkeeper was a heartless guy, that he was cold, that he liked turning people away.
17:01
SPEAKER_00: And I'm telling you, it's not true.
17:03
SPEAKER_00: I I hated turning people away.
17:05
SPEAKER_00: I knew how dangerous it was at night out there, not just because of the wild beasts, but the bands of robbers that preyed on weak, helpless couples just like this one.
17:18
SPEAKER_00: Voice behind me yelled, Shut the door! That decided me.
17:22
SPEAKER_00: I shut the door, went outside and shut the door.
17:25
SPEAKER_00: I said, Listen, I got an idea.
17:27
SPEAKER_00: I said, Down over the hill.
17:28
SPEAKER_00: We got a big cave for animals.
17:30
SPEAKER_00: It's it's not doesn't smell good, but it's it's warm.
17:34
SPEAKER_00: And it'd work for you if you're willing.
17:36
SPEAKER_00: And I led them down over the hill and I took them into the cave, and sure enough, animals always can make room for one more.
17:43
SPEAKER_00: I tucked them to the far wall of the cave where it would be the warmest.
17:47
SPEAKER_00: I said, stay there, fix yourself up something, I'll go get some food.
17:51
SPEAKER_00: Hi, hi, telled it, on back up to the to the lodge.
17:54
SPEAKER_00: He went in the kitchen and I hunted down a piece of bread and uh and a hunk of cheese, and behind me I heard a voice, Malika.
18:04
SPEAKER_00: She said, What are you doing?
18:05
SPEAKER_00: I said, I'm I'm I'm getting food.
18:06
SPEAKER_00: Some people just come.
18:08
SPEAKER_00: She said, We don't have any room.
18:09
SPEAKER_00: I said, I know we don't have any room.
18:11
SPEAKER_00: I got a little defensive.
18:14
SPEAKER_00: I said, but they need a place.
18:15
SPEAKER_00: I said, so I'm putting them putting them down in the cave.
18:19
SPEAKER_00: She said, with the animals?
18:20
SPEAKER_00: I said, it's warm, and they won't step on them.
18:25
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Looks like the girl's about to drop a baby any minute, and I knew I had I knew I had her at that.
18:32
SPEAKER_00: Malika may have been a lot of things, but I have to concede, she had a soft heart and she loved babies, and she was a great midwife.
18:41
SPEAKER_00: So immediately she grabbed a blanket and a light, and I took the food and we stepped over the all the prone figures and to go out the door, and by the time we got halfway out, you could hear the Levite snoring already.
18:55
SPEAKER_00: I thought my found myself thinking, why is it the person who snores always falls asleep first?
19:00
SPEAKER_00: But that's enough.
19:01
SPEAKER_00: So we go out the door and we go down into the cave and and and she goes over and starts helping Mary.
19:09
SPEAKER_00: And I give the food to Joseph and he thanks me for it.
19:13
SPEAKER_00: He says, you know, thank you.
19:14
SPEAKER_00: He says, we haven't eaten anything since noon.
19:18
SPEAKER_00: Just to make conversation.
19:19
SPEAKER_00: I said, How long have you been married?
19:21
SPEAKER_00: And is this your first baby?
19:24
SPEAKER_00: He hesitated a minute.
19:26
SPEAKER_00: He said, Well, a little less than nine months, and yeah, it's Mary's first baby.
19:36
SPEAKER_00: Sounded a little strange, but he didn't appear like he wanted to talk about it, so I let it go.
19:41
SPEAKER_00: The first hint that I had, this wasn't an ordinary couple.
19:49
SPEAKER_00: How can I tell you about that week?
19:52
SPEAKER_00: You know, there's a I don't know how people got the idea that this couple Joseph he'd said his name was and that her name was Mary.
20:01
SPEAKER_00: I don't know where people got the idea that they had the baby that first night.
20:07
SPEAKER_00: I mean, doesn't it say in the book itself that while they were there the days were accomplished that she should be delivered?
20:18
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, she didn't have the baby the first night, and I'm glad she didn't.
20:22
SPEAKER_00: It was good.
20:24
SPEAKER_00: It was really good for me and for Malika.
20:27
SPEAKER_00: Because Malika hit it off with Mary, despite the difference in their ages.
20:31
SPEAKER_00: They hit it off right away.
20:34
SPEAKER_00: And so did Joseph and me.
20:37
SPEAKER_00: We had a lot in common.
20:38
SPEAKER_00: He was a Mason, he was a carpenter by trade, and he said to me that next morning, he said, you know, if you'd let us stay here in the cave till she has the baby, she said, he said, I'd be glad to help you around the lodge.
20:49
SPEAKER_00: I can fix things, I'm good with my hands.
20:52
SPEAKER_00: And he was, and we worked together, and we got all those rotted timbers replaced, set up some, repaired some wall and stuff like that.
21:02
SPEAKER_00: And you know what happens when you're sweating with somebody side by side, you sort of relax, you begin to open up.
21:10
SPEAKER_00: And Joseph says to me this he says, you know, we just finished a job and we're relaxing.
21:16
SPEAKER_00: He says, I know you're gonna find this hard to believe, but that's not my baby.
21:24
SPEAKER_00: Not only that, he said, but she hadn't been with any other man either.
21:29
SPEAKER_00: That baby in her is uh is from God.
21:34
SPEAKER_00: Well, we were not looking at each other at the time, and I just kind of let out a belly laugh and made as to how I'd heard lots of excuses and stories from young couples who'd got pregnant, but this was a new one on me.
21:47
SPEAKER_00: But then I looked at him and I could see he was serious.
21:50
SPEAKER_00: He was he was serious about that.
21:55
SPEAKER_00: And he nodded, he said, Yeah, I I I know how you I felt the same way.
22:01
SPEAKER_00: He says, I was furious when she told me.
22:04
SPEAKER_00: He said, you know, it was one thing to betray my trust, get pregnant by somebody else.
22:10
SPEAKER_00: But then to expect me to believe a fairy tale like that, to think I'm that kind of a fool?
22:17
SPEAKER_00: He said, that was too much for me.
22:20
SPEAKER_00: I was ready to put her away right then.
22:24
SPEAKER_00: He says, then I had this dream, and in a dream at night, an angel came to me and he said she was telling the truth.
22:31
SPEAKER_00: He said what was inside her was of the Holy Spirit, that it was from God, and that it was going to become a baby boy, and we should call his name Yeshua, salvation, because he would bring salvation to us.
22:46
SPEAKER_00: Save us from our sins, the angel said.
22:49
SPEAKER_00: So I had a choice.
22:51
SPEAKER_00: I woke up, I decided to believe the angel, and I took her and I made it official.
22:55
SPEAKER_00: I married her.
22:59
SPEAKER_00: I know it's hard to believe.
23:01
SPEAKER_00: And it was.
23:04
SPEAKER_00: I'm not a gullible man, but I've got to tell you, after a few days that week, I began thinking, well, you know, maybe it just might be true.
23:16
SPEAKER_00: That week did something for Malika and me for our marriage.
23:21
SPEAKER_00: I mean.
23:24
SPEAKER_00: Malika, Mary couldn't work alongside Malika like Joseph could work alongside me, but they would just sit and talk for hours about what?
23:33
SPEAKER_00: I never knew.
23:33
SPEAKER_00: Malika never told me.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: I've never asked her.
23:36
SPEAKER_00: But something changed, seemed to, something indefinable in Malika that week.
23:44
SPEAKER_00: By the end of the week, she seemed, I don't know, quieter somehow, more at peace with herself, God, maybe even me.
23:57
SPEAKER_00: As for me, working with Joseph, I watched how he treated Mary.
24:01
SPEAKER_00: You know what?
24:02
SPEAKER_00: If there's ever a time that I've known when a young man had reason to doubt his wife or be suspicious of her, that was the time right there.
24:14
SPEAKER_00: But he didn't seem to.
24:16
SPEAKER_00: He treated her well, he treated her like a like a he treated her like a queen, actually.
24:23
SPEAKER_00: He was so caring, and he was so loving and understanding.
24:27
SPEAKER_00: And the words of my wife came back to me, those mocking words I've learned in life.
24:32
SPEAKER_00: She said, A good husband is three things, loving and caring and understanding.
24:37
SPEAKER_00: My husband Kim is all but three of those.
24:41
SPEAKER_00: Watching Joseph, I had to admit, she was right.
24:49
SPEAKER_00: Then came the night that we're laying there and we're asleep, and then we got woke up by the voice.
24:56
SPEAKER_00: It's Joseph.
24:57
SPEAKER_00: He's calling out, Malika, he says, a baby's coming.
25:02
SPEAKER_00: And she was a pro.
25:04
SPEAKER_00: She got up and she grabbed some stuff and yelled at me to bring some warm water, heat up some water, and bring some cloths, and she was off down the hill just like that.
25:15
SPEAKER_00: That girl would have no better nurse than my wife, I knew.
25:19
SPEAKER_00: And being all thumbs, middle of the night, having to heat up water out there, I by the time I got down to the cave, the baby's head was coming out.
25:29
SPEAKER_00: When I stood there and Malika looked up and saw my face, she laughed.
25:32
SPEAKER_00: She said, Just drop the stuff here and go out, go outside.
25:36
SPEAKER_00: And so I did.
25:37
SPEAKER_00: I joined Joseph at the door of the cave.
25:40
SPEAKER_00: And he was standing there all young and excited.
25:43
SPEAKER_00: And then came the call from behind us, it's a boy.
25:47
SPEAKER_00: And he smiled and nudged me as if to say, I told you so.
25:51
SPEAKER_00: And I thought, well, yeah, I suppose maybe.
25:58
SPEAKER_00: If an angel tells you, my wife uh apparently washed the baby and cut the cord and wrapped it up in claws and laid it in Mary's arms because she came out a minute later and sent Joseph in.
26:18
SPEAKER_00: Malika stood beside me.
26:22
SPEAKER_00: She was beaming.
26:23
SPEAKER_00: She was radiant.
26:24
SPEAKER_00: She was so happy.
26:24
SPEAKER_00: It was, it was, I admit, it was a good look for her.
26:29
SPEAKER_00: She looked like a she looked good.
26:35
SPEAKER_00: It's wonderful, isn't it?
26:36
SPEAKER_00: She said.
26:38
SPEAKER_00: But I I couldn't say anything.
26:41
SPEAKER_00: You ever been so you couldn't even breathe?
26:43
SPEAKER_00: You're so stuck up inside with, I don't know, anger or resentment or guilt or whatever.
26:52
SPEAKER_00: So I just stared at the sky.
26:54
SPEAKER_00: The stars were bright that night, seemed to twinkle, or maybe it was something in my eye, wiped my eye, came away wet.
27:04
SPEAKER_00: I'm not a crying man.
27:05
SPEAKER_00: I'm not a crying man, but I all of a sudden, it was like a river, a river washed through me and washed out all the filth in the stable floor of my life.
27:19
SPEAKER_00: Did something I hadn't done in months.
27:24
SPEAKER_00: Reached over and put my arms around her.
27:27
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, I said.
27:32
SPEAKER_00: Called her my queen.
27:36
SPEAKER_00: She looked up at me and her tears were joy, and she said, uh, Kim, it's uh Mary and Joseph and the baby.
27:47
SPEAKER_00: They've done something for us.
27:51
SPEAKER_00: Maybe so, I said.
27:53
SPEAKER_00: Maybe so.
27:57
SPEAKER_00: That baby, I said under my breath.
28:00
SPEAKER_00: Could Joseph really be right?
28:03
SPEAKER_00: Could that baby be the savior of the world?
28:07
SPEAKER_00: I mean, how could that be?
28:09
SPEAKER_00: That wasn't right, it wasn't natural.
28:11
SPEAKER_00: If he was the savior of the world, why would he be born to a poor, no-name couple like this?
28:16
SPEAKER_00: Why would he be born in a cave, breathing the air of animals and cows and sheep rather than the air of human society?
28:26
SPEAKER_00: Why would he come to a place that had no room for him if heaven had sent him?
28:32
SPEAKER_00: And I thought, well, true that this baby.
28:54
SPEAKER_00: Found myself wondering, how is it then that he could save the world if the world would have no room for him?
29:05
SPEAKER_00: Malika, who'd heard what I said under my breath, was looking up at me this whole time, could see me thinking she could always read my mind.
29:17
SPEAKER_00: She leaned up and she kissed me and she said this.
29:20
SPEAKER_00: She said, Well, if that baby could maybe save our marriage, he could probably do almost anything, couldn't he?
29:35
SPEAKER_00: I couldn't help laughing.
29:37
SPEAKER_00: She had a point there.
29:43
SPEAKER_00: I leaned down and I kissed her back.
29:50
SPEAKER_00: My name is Kim, and that's my story.
29:53
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening.