This week’s wonder is a serialized version of my sermon from Sunday, December 15

The Joy Bringer

Part 1: There had always been something special about Joshua. From the moment he was born, he laughed joyously. The first sound most babies make is panicked sobbing, but not Joshua. Joshua laughed, seemingly delighted to be alive, and his laugh was infectious. At first, the doctors and Joshua’s parents were a bit startled at this response to being born, but soon, they too were all laughing, captivated by this innocent, bemused child. Joshua giggled as the nurse gently set him in his mother’s arms. Maria smiled and looked up at her husband José, who couldn’t help but beam a snaggle-toothed grin and heave a sigh of relief, even though he was intensely concerned about their future.

José had been very worried about Maria’s pregnancy. They were poor farm workers, immigrants to a land that wanted their labor but didn’t want them. Life was hard. The days were spent under the hot sun, the evenings in the most makeshift of shelters, with eight other people all groping and poking each other as they did their best to find even the smallest of personal spaces. Maria worked in the fields until the last week of her pregnancy, when she simply couldn’t stand on her feet any longer, and that’s when their situation got worse.