My name is Yosef. I am a Palestinian Jew living in Nazareth of Galilee. I am writing this as a personal documentation of the events happening in my life, as of right now. I do not think of myself as a very literate man. I am merely a traveling carpenter. However, I feel that what I am witnessing needs to at least be attempted at being put to scripture. So, I hope that if my written word does not lose itself to time, future generations will be able to understand my pattern of speech.

Like I said, I live in Nazareth of Galilee. With me lives my wife, Mariam, and our son, Yeshua. He is the reason I am writing this. I call him my son, only because it is customary. I have never actually conceived with my beloved Mariam.

Yeshua was born of some miracle that I at first hesitated to call Divine. The rabbis teach us that the Divine can never take on a human form nor would it have any need to. However, my boy Yeshua is now eleven years old and already, he has demonstrated many miracles before the Nazarenes. I will not write them all on this single piece of papyrus. I cannot fit it all on here anyways. I will only describe a few.

When my Yeshua was still a baby lying in his cradle, Mariam swore that strange things would happen about our home while I was gone to some other village for carpentry. We had both met angels before Yeshua's miraculous birth, so she knew that the events were not caused by them. She would search everywhere for a lost object in vain, only to have it appear where she started her endeavor. Sometimes, stable objects would topple over without warning. If pagans were passing through the village holding their idols, those idols would crumble to dust as soon as they passed by our home. Mariam could not sense who or what caused these things to pass. She hesitated to accept that our baby boy was the culprit.

However, this only made more sense as Yeshua grew into a small child. Whenever Mariam or I would search for a lost item with no success, Yeshua would either point his tiny finger towards the item's whereabouts or he would make it appear out of thin air! When he was five years of age, I started to take him with me on my carpentry travels to nearby villages. I thought he'd get very excited about that, but at first, he seemed fairly reserved. He was always kind of quiet except for when he was boasting about his knowledge and abilities.

At first, I would not let him help me with my carpentry. I would only let him sit by and watch. That all changed when one day, I had found to my dismay that I had not cut a strip of wood to its proper length nor shape. I was then mortified to discover that a few strips were cut in this manner. I almost left with my carpentry tools and told those purchasing the would-be home to wait on me a few days. Yeshua looked at me and said, "Papa, would you like to wait on another for a few days? Treat them as thou would like for thyself." Just then, my little boy grabbed one side of one strip and asked me to grab the other and pull. The strip lengthened! Not only that, it stretched into its proper shape! We grabbed on to another and likewise, the wood stretched out and conformed itself! We did this with all of the misshapen strips of wood and my purchasers were very joyful to have the home finished. I laughed and sprung my little boy up into the air! From that point on, needless to say, I brought Yeshua on all of my journeys to aid with my carpentry.

Yeshua has also healed many sick people in Nazareth, including lepers. Mariam and I burst into tears when he did this for the first time. However, we were terrified that such displays would earn him a bounty and get him either captured or killed by religious zealots. We already had to flee to Egypt with him when he was a baby. We could only imagine what would happen if such horrible people discovered Yeshua's whereabouts again through word of his abilities.

Mariam and I have tried to persuade Yeshua to perform his miracles in private for that reason. He has become a little boastful and, against our wishes, he has performed miracles in front of crowds. A fortnight ago, he stood in the streets outside our home and had Mariam and me come out to watch him. I was utterly exhausted, as I had just returned from a carpentry job without Yeshua. Mariam coaxed me along, though, and we both went outside to witness what young Yeshua wanted us to see. My eyes grew wide in awe and many of the villagers gathered in a multitude around us as Yeshua started moving the stars! He explained something to us about how the stars were so far away that he had to reach back into the past and move them so that we could witness their motion in the present. I didn't quite understand what he was saying though.

There were indeed times when the young Yeshua had gotten too full of himself and his abilities. I have found myself straightening his attitude out after some misconduct. I guess he was born with natural Divine Power but is still growing into the use of Divine Wisdom. I see it as my duty to help this God-child of mine focus his miracles in a more proper direction. At least as proper a direction as a mere man like me can suffice.

*Author's Note: I got the ideas for my story from the Infancy Gospels. They describe Jesus as performing miracles as a child, such as helping Joseph lengthen pieces of wood for carpentry, as entailed in my story. However, there is no story where Joseph is in such a conundrum that he almost leaves home-buyers to wait on him. Jesus also never said the thing to Joseph about treating others as thou would like for thyself. I wrote that based on my imagining of what a young Jesus would sound like and how he would act if his father were in such a situation. I made up the miracles such as Jesus moving the stars and healing sick Nazarenes. Although, there was a story in the Infancy Gospels where Jesus healed a man's snakebite. There are also no stories about Mary reporting strange paranormal happenings around her home while raising the baby Jesus. I added that in as a bit of a mysterious element. It also sounded realistic based on how the Infancy Gospels make it sound as though Jesus was naturally born with his abilities. It would only make sense that he might make strange things take place, even as a baby.

Bibliography. "Infancy Gospels" from The Lost Books of the Bible by Rutherford H. Platt, Jr. Web Source

Original Story Source

In-text Image Citation:

• Baby Jesus in a Cradle
• Jesus, Mary and Joseph
• Joseph with Little Boy Jesus

Banner Image: Infant Jesus