Day four of Mary and Joseph heading south.

         My buddy and I set out from Chattanooga one morning with the goal of driving just over 600 miles to our homes in the Cleveland area. We were driving my Chevy Vega. For those of you who do not know, the Vega was considered one of the worst cars ever made. I must have gotten the one good one. They usually packed it in around 50,000 miles. I drove that one for over 120,000 miles before the engine warped. That was their problem. Aluminum engine block and it could not take much heat. I did love my Vega, though. I babied it, took care of it and it took me 120,000 miles.

         My friend and were going to drive straight through. The car got around 35 mph, which was phenomenal for the time. We figured we would have to stop once for fuel, which was exactly what happened. Made it home in nine and a half hours. That one stop got us gas and a quick run into a White Castle for a bathroom break and burgers to go. Nothing to it.

         Foolish boy that I was, I figured that when my new wife and I set out to return to college in Chattanooga, it would simply take nine and one half hours. But, no.

         Every hour we were looking for rest areas or a McDonalds. We spent a night in Lexington, Kentucky. We spent way too much time in a place called Jellico, Tennessee. We started out on a Tuesday and arrived on Thursday. And I learned a valuable lesson. Traveling with a female is vastly different than traveling with a male.

         Joseph and Mary left Nazareth. The Bible doesn’t tell us if they rode a chariot or walked or rode dinosaurs, but I am going to go with the idea that Joseph pulled his carpenter’s cart with supplies in it and a nice place for Mary to sit. The cart would have been slower than walking and so they would have fallen way behind the main group in just a few hours. The road they followed would have been terribly hilly and Joseph could have only kept the pace for four or five hours. And then there was Mary. Nearly ready to have the Child. Uncomfortable riding, Joseph would have had to let her down every so often to walk, but that also would have required rearranging the load so the cart would remain balanced and easier to pull. While Mary walked, the pace would have slowed way down. Then, she would tire and Joseph would move supplies around, set Mary in amongst their traveling needs and then rearrange all of that to make her secure. As a pregnant woman, there would have needed to be multiple bathroom breaks, only there were no bathrooms. There would have been times when she needed help, which would have embarrassed both of them. At the pace they were going it would have taken a week to do what others were doing in two and a half days. This would explain why Bethlehem was so crowded when they got there.

         My return trip to Chattanooga was taking forever, but it seemed like an easier ride than when my friend and I set out from Chattanooga. I had my new bride with me. I wonder if it was like that with Joseph and Mary. Obviously, they had other issues. Pregnant woman, harder travel, taking care of THE SON OF GOD! Stress levels would have been higher. Still, this was the trip where they began to get to know one another. Given the customs of the times, there was no dating or any real visiting until the marriage. They were virtual strangers. So this trip, with all its hardships and dangers, was still their coming together time. They were going to be taking care of the Son of God. Of course they talked of that. But Joseph would have told her about being a carpenter and she would have shared her story of her trip to see Elizabeth. At night when they sat by their fire and slowly ate their evening meal, they would have looked at the stars, maybe laughed at something that had happened that day and probably shared their worries and even some tears. Mary would have felt bad because she was slowing the whole trip down and Joseph would be reassuring her. And a bond would be growing, a bond they would need later as they really began to face adversity.

         And then in the morning they would start all over again. One day following another, until they drew near to Jericho. Not the grand city of Old Testament fame. That had been destroyed. But they had built another smaller city on that spot, and that was where they turned west and headed toward Jerusalem. Then, on the outskirts of Jerusalem, with the city upon the hills easily in view they would have turned south and traveled another day. And then…….

         Tomorrow.