SPEAKER_00: It was absolutely perfect.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, after all the hours, it was perfect.
SPEAKER_00: I had spent days and nights sleepless at times in my dad's shop.
SPEAKER_00: And I wanted to get it just right.
SPEAKER_00: Sawing, sanding, staining.
SPEAKER_00: And when I finally stepped away, I looked at it and it was just right.
SPEAKER_00: I think I had built the best crib ever on the planet.
SPEAKER_00: And with it, I was going to ask her to marry me.
SPEAKER_00: And you may be saying, okay, a crib.
SPEAKER_00: That's kind of an odd engagement present.
SPEAKER_00: But you don't understand.
SPEAKER_00: When you're a carpenter, you do things a little differently.
SPEAKER_00: See, this was my way to tell her, I'm ready.
SPEAKER_00: I'm ready to start a family.
SPEAKER_00: I'm ready to fall in love.
SPEAKER_00: I'm ready to spend a lifetime filling this crib with you.
SPEAKER_00: I had it all worked out.
SPEAKER_00: I took her on a date and had some of my buddies go and take the crib, put it on her back porch.
SPEAKER_00: We went for a walk down by the lake and fed the ducks.
SPEAKER_00: It was cute.
SPEAKER_00: And when I walked her back to her dad's house and brought her up to the back porch, and there was the crib with a big bow on it.
SPEAKER_00: She was confused at first.
SPEAKER_00: But I said, Will you spend the rest of your life with me?
SPEAKER_00: Can we make a family together?
SPEAKER_00: It was the happiest time.
SPEAKER_00: The next couple of weeks were amazing.
SPEAKER_00: It was a blur.
SPEAKER_00: We spent time prepping and planning, and you know, everything seemed to be set in motion.
SPEAKER_00: My dad, he was gonna give me a shop after years of apprenticing.
SPEAKER_00: He said I was ready to run it on my own.
SPEAKER_00: Laughed, I told him I'd still give him a job.
SPEAKER_00: But because he was giving me this opportunity, I was finally gonna be making enough money to get my own place.
SPEAKER_00: Had my eyes on this apartment across town, it was gonna be perfect.
SPEAKER_00: Two bedroom to start, but hey, room for us and room for the crib.
SPEAKER_00: I couldn't have imagined a more perfect scenario.
SPEAKER_00: And then she came.
SPEAKER_00: She came to my house one night.
SPEAKER_00: She said, Joe, we gotta talk.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: What is it?
SPEAKER_00: With tears in her eyes, she looked at me and she said, Joe, I'm gonna have a baby.
SPEAKER_00: What?
SPEAKER_00: A baby.
SPEAKER_00: In one moment everything I ever wanted fell apart.
SPEAKER_00: I had all these plans.
SPEAKER_00: I love her.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, she tried to explain it.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, an angel told me, whatever.
SPEAKER_00: We all know there's only one way a baby's made.
SPEAKER_00: I was angry, I was hurt, I couldn't think.
SPEAKER_00: I walked out of there and I didn't know what to do.
SPEAKER_00: Down by the lake, I'm praying, I'm screaming, I'm crying, I don't everything, everything just changed.
SPEAKER_00: I got together with my buddies and told them how angry I was, and but I but I needed help.
SPEAKER_00: What do I do?
SPEAKER_00: I asked my dad.
SPEAKER_00: I said, I love her, Dad.
SPEAKER_00: I still love her.
SPEAKER_00: I have good friends.
SPEAKER_00: A good father.
SPEAKER_00: And by the end of the night, they'd helped me sort some things out, and I realized what I needed to do.
SPEAKER_00: The next morning I was gonna go down to the courthouse, get the paperwork drawn up, and get put an end to this marriage.
SPEAKER_00: But I was gonna do it as quietly as possible.
SPEAKER_00: See, the truth is I didn't want her embarrassed around town.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't want her shamed.
SPEAKER_00: I still loved her.
SPEAKER_00: I went to bed that night, sure, the next morning, my first visit was gonna be to the courthouse.
SPEAKER_00: But in the middle of the night, I had this dream.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you ever have a dream that's so vivid that you could swear it's real?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it was like that, but way more intense.
SPEAKER_00: And all of sudden, there's an angel talking to me.
SPEAKER_00: And I was afraid.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, first my life falls apart, and now this creature visits me in all this magnificence and glory, and I am scared to death.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, Don't be afraid, Joseph.
SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden I felt peace.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, The child, the child inside Mary is from the Most High.
SPEAKER_00: And you will have him as your son, and you will name him Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And he talked about the prophecy of old that the Messiah would come.
SPEAKER_00: And we would call him Emanuel, Imanuel, God with us.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what the first thing I thought was?
SPEAKER_00: She still loves me.
SPEAKER_00: I know I'm supposed to think more spiritual things in that moment, but I didn't.
SPEAKER_00: All I could think is she was telling the truth.
SPEAKER_00: And then I thought, oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_00: This is the one.
SPEAKER_00: The one.
SPEAKER_00: Messiah, Emmanuel.
SPEAKER_00: The one that was promised to Abraham and David.
SPEAKER_00: That we've been waiting for.
SPEAKER_00: It's just him.
SPEAKER_00: My day went from good to worse to scary to better.
SPEAKER_00: To unbelievable.
SPEAKER_00: And I didn't know what to do with myself.
SPEAKER_00: I ran the next morning and I went to Mary and I said, I know, I know, I know what you go.
SPEAKER_00: And then we could barely talk, but it was a lot of like that.
SPEAKER_00: And we're so excited.
SPEAKER_00: And she said, Did he tell you?
SPEAKER_00: I said, Yes, he did.
SPEAKER_00: And do you understand?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I do.
SPEAKER_00: And do you are we still gonna do it?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we're gonna do this.
SPEAKER_00: And there were so many plans again to make.
SPEAKER_00: There were so many plans again to make.
SPEAKER_00: And she said, okay, listen, here's what I'm gonna do.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go visit my relative.
SPEAKER_00: Get out of town for a little bit because people talk, right?
SPEAKER_00: And I stayed behind and I got the apartment, and I started setting up the room, and I got that crib.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't think I'd need it this soon.
SPEAKER_00: And I put it in the room.
SPEAKER_00: And during her months with her relatives, I started building all the furniture to go around that crib, but it was a centerpiece.
SPEAKER_00: I thought when she gets back, when she gets back, it's gonna be awesome.
SPEAKER_00: And she was gonna come back just in time to have the baby.
SPEAKER_00: But then we got a letter from the government.
SPEAKER_00: Well, they mess some stuff up, don't they?
SPEAKER_00: And they said, hey, guess what?
SPEAKER_00: Time for everybody to get counted.
SPEAKER_00: Go back to where your parents are from, and you gotta go.
SPEAKER_00: And so we had to go travel to Bethlehem.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, Bethlehem, are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_00: So right as she's getting home, we have this letter saying that we've got to take this 80-mile journey on foot to Bethlehem so we can go take part in this census.
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: With all the technological advances, I have to walk 80 miles?
SPEAKER_00: So we pack it up.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever walked 80 miles with a donkey and a woman that's nine months pregnant?
SPEAKER_00: It's not fun.
SPEAKER_00: At all.
SPEAKER_00: We roll into town and all I want to do is check into the Romana, put my feet up by the pool, get one of those little drinks with an umbrella, right?
SPEAKER_00: But wouldn't you know it?
SPEAKER_00: Everybody else got the same letter.
SPEAKER_00: And when you don't have a pregnant woman, apparently you walk faster.
SPEAKER_00: So there's no rooms left for us.
SPEAKER_00: This little guy, I know a roof.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, we need something.
SPEAKER_00: And he takes us around and oh.
SPEAKER_00: We're in a stall with the animals.
SPEAKER_00: But hey, there's a roof overhead.
SPEAKER_00: So I start rolling out the bedroll, and I start trying to make a place for Mary.
SPEAKER_00: And also, get this.
SPEAKER_00: Joe, it's time.
SPEAKER_00: What?
SPEAKER_00: We are in a barn.
SPEAKER_00: So we start making preps, and I start kind of gets me some clean water.
SPEAKER_00: We start trying to clean the straw.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever tried to clean straw?
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't work.
SPEAKER_00: So we're starting to try to clear a place, and we're like, there's gonna be a baby, and we're gonna need a spot to put them, and we got and I think back to that crib, and I go, I wish I had that crib.
SPEAKER_00: It was perfect.
SPEAKER_00: My kid's about to be born with the smell of manure.
SPEAKER_00: And I have the world's greatest crib sitting at home 80 miles away.
SPEAKER_00: And all we can do is clean out a feeding trough and put down some blankets so he doesn't get splinters.
SPEAKER_00: It's a whirlwind from there, and I'll tell you, I think I blacked out a couple of times.
SPEAKER_00: Don't tell the other guys, okay?
SPEAKER_00: But I it was it's scary, and it's kind of intimidating.
SPEAKER_00: And here we are, and he shows up, and I hold him in my arms, and everything's changed.
SPEAKER_00: And I look at this baby, and I think back to that angel's visit.
SPEAKER_00: She'll call him Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He will save his people.
SPEAKER_00: And I take this perfect child and I stick him in his less than perfect crib.
SPEAKER_00: And I hit my knees and I just prayed, God, thank you for what you've done.
SPEAKER_00: And I thought of Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah, who talked about my little child all those years ago, and I had no idea what this would look like when I was sitting in church, and the rabbi said that Isaiah had this verse.
SPEAKER_00: That he would come to set the captives free.
SPEAKER_00: When it said he would come to set the captives free, I thought they got that wrong because I pictured him walking in a room.
SPEAKER_00: I thought we should go back and change that and say, he will be born to set the captives free.
SPEAKER_00: And then it dawned on me.
SPEAKER_00: My child came to set me free.
SPEAKER_00: Me.
SPEAKER_00: All I could think is that my plans had gotten destroyed.
SPEAKER_00: That moment I vowed.
SPEAKER_00: To let him make the plans from now on.
SPEAKER_00: And I realized I was free.
SPEAKER_00: I no longer had to worry about my own life.
SPEAKER_00: That's how I could turn myself over.
SPEAKER_00: It was the greatest thing I'd ever say.
SPEAKER_00: Until I got older, but that's another story.
SPEAKER_00: I've taken too much of your time.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening.
SPEAKER_00: You'll have a great day.