JESUS AND I AS KIDS

For as long as I can remember there has been a lovely Nativity set up each Christmas on the town green next to the bandstand.  Mary & Joseph, a couple of shepherds, some sheep, a donkey all keep watch over Baby Jesus who is sleeping soundly in a manger, soundly but, in the minds of some, inadequately covered and quite exposed to the weather.  Around 1955, a couple of days before Christmas, an island boy was returning home with his brothers and parents, having been downtown to enjoy all the evening excitement that was Vinalhaven’s bustling retail Main Street at holiday time.  Where today there are a couple of lovely galleries, restaurants, two or three shops and a grocery store but not much else, there were a dozen or fifteen very busy and profitable businesses of all kinds and they were all decked out for Christmas, each offering treats for kids who came in with their folks. Returning home, the family walked by the manger.  It was very cold and the boy expressed some concern about whether Baby Jesus was really tucked in and warm enough.  Close examination revealed that he was, in fact, only barely covered.   Assurances were offered by his folks but the boy remained concerned.  Before long the family arrived home, about a block away.  The big day was near at hand and the boys were all put to bed with Christmas stories.  A little later the boy, still concerned, got dressed, grabbed his quilt and pillow, crept out the back door and trotted a hundred yards or so up the hill to the Nativity.  He made room for himself in the hay next to Baby Jesus, pulled the blanket up over them both, tucked the pillow under his head and, in no time, warm and cozy, they were both asleep.  A couple of short blasts of the siren down at the fire hall woke him a little later but, only wondering briefly what all the commotion was about or if there was a fire somewhere—certainly there was none within view—he fell back asleep.  Before long the search party that had assembled in response to his parent’s concern and to the siren found him there in the manger and persuaded him to come home but only after they’d agreed that Jesus could keep the quilt for as long as he needed it.