The Camel's Tale

I’d never thought that being a camel was all that wonderful but you know without a bunch of us lugging the supplies and tents and whatever, the three Wise Ones would never have made it to Bethlehem by the twelfth day.  Mind you, I didn’t carry the supplies.  I carried the wisest one, Melchior.

By the time we made it to Bethlehem the little town was getting back to being its sleepy old self after being so busy for that census.  Most people had gone off home but the disreputable couple we’d gone to see were still there.  There was just a man, a woman, and the baby. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Wise Ones are all very well but as far as camels are concerned camel boys are a lot more use.  They see to it that we’re fed and watered and rubbed down now and then.  The Wise Ones were totally useless. If they were not gazing at the stars they were talking about them, charting them, interpreting them and all that malarkey. They often missed the most interesting exciting parts of the journey, so absorbed and preoccupied were they with their own concerns and interests. They didn’t notice Lucky, the mouse who smuggled herself into the saddlebag of Caspar's camel. She was a teenage mouse who had had a terrible fight with her parents. But there I go again. I'm getting off the point.

Well, we went to that dreadful King Herod's place. Oh, there was plenty of water and grain and other good things to eat, but even we could sense the evil that hung around there.  There was that smarmy Herod who wanted the Wise Ones to find the new King of the Jews and come back to tell him where he could go to pay his respects himself.  It wasn't what he said but how he said it that made even the fleas on my humps crawl with uneasiness. Creepy man. 

On the outskirts of Bethlehem we ran across the happiest and wildest bunch of  shepherds you ever did see. All of them talking at once about angels and a baby and Good News for everyone. The Wise Ones smiled. The first time any of us had ever seen them smile! So just we three best camels carried the Wise Ones into town to see if it was just as the shepherds had told us.

When we found them it was night. It was very cold. Of course I wasn't supposed to come into the place where they were but I thought it wouldn’t matter if I just stuck my head in for a peek whilst the Wise Ones were deciding if they really were at the right place.

Well, it was a bit surprising to find the scene so ordinary.   I mean, even when a new camel is born amongst the herd, there is more attention and excitement: camel boys doing the midwifery, the rest of us clomping around to get a peek, shouts, cheers, everyone watching the new one try to stand up for the first time.

There was none of that in this little tiny place in Bethlehem. The man, the woman, between them the child. The Wise Ones put their gifts in there, and bowed down on bended knee and all that. Then it was back out the door, and up looking into the stars again, and soon we were on our way out of town. All of us except Lucky, that is. She’d still been hiding in that saddlebag and she hopped out and stayed behind. She was staying right there with him, the one born to be King. She wanted to live the rest of his story!

It was some years later that another mouse joined our caravan and started telling some fantastic and wonderful stories she had heard from her great-great-grandmother Lucky! Seems that throughout the years many people came to see the child as he grew up. Some went running through the streets and all over the world telling others the good things they had seen and heard about this child. All came seeking to receive something, but once you see him, really see him, you long to give whatever you have to further his life in the world.

Sometime or another, everyone needs to take a look in that baby. I know what I saw. Even I could see that this Jesus calls us to follow him so we might do something beautiful with our lives and bear much fruit. Even camels!

Isn’t it weird.  The Wise Ones are off all the time looking at the light in the stars, when the light of the world is right here in the midst of us.  Any camel with eyes could see that!   It’s a deep secret that even the Wise Ones overlook most of the time. Keep looking at the babe in the manger, offer him your gifts, and you will see all that there is to know and see!   And who knows, maybe if we all offer as much as we receive, we just might in fact make it through the eye of a needle!

This is not an original story, I heard or read a similar one some years ago but cannot remember the source.  I've written my own version of someone else's original idea and if anyone knows the source of that idea I would be very grateful if they let me know!