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Joseph said that it would not be wise to return to Nazareth and then come back for the visitation to the temple. It would be better to remain in Bethlehem and, on the morning of the forty-first day, to take the child to Jerusalem, obey the law, and return to the cave and pack up preparatory to leaving for the long trip home the next day.

Altogether, the carpenter would be away from his business for many weeks. This, for a young man who had recently concluded his apprenticeship, was a long time. He must return to his work. In a craft as precarious as his, it was important to remain in good favor with the townsmen and a man could not do that if he was not available for work.

Mary agreed. She was a tractable, obedient wife, a girl whose hours were taken up with her baby. The baths, the feedings, the changes, sitting with him in the early sunlight on the side of the hills, rocking him to sleep and crooning to him in the late hours all tended to confuse the young mother between her son’s divinity and his human aspects. He was a baby-her baby-but he was also God, and the daily ministrations to his normal needs moved her mother’s heart to dwell upon him as an infant who needed maternal care and love.

But, when the baby slept, and she and Joseph had time to discuss, in whispers, the wondrous things which had happened, and which would come in the future, they were beset by anxiety and they did not know what was expected of them. Joseph seemed at times to have a deeper appreciation of the destiny of the youngster. Mary, on the other hand, had an appreciation of each of the wonders of the birth of the messiah, but seemed unable to group them into one big mural.

It was better this way because, had the Father permitted her to see the enormity of the whole plan, she would have been overwhelmed in the presence of Jesus and could not have discharged the duties of a good mother in the normal intercourse of raising a child. Another factor was that the Son of God had come to earth to be born, to “grow in wisdom and in favor with God and men,” to engage in a public ministry to show the true and only way to heaven, and to die in self-willed pain for all men. These things would not have been truly of earth if Jesus had not elected to be as human as his neighbors.

Neither Mary nor Joseph ever lost sight of the real mission of Jesus, nor of his divinity. They knew. In the years ahead there would be many strange and awesome things to remind them, again and again, that the human aspect was condescension of God to man, whom he created and loved. The divine side would be hidden for more than thirty years and, when it was revealed publicly, it would be done at a marriage feast, and solely to please his mother. The sorrows were still far away.

The first forty-one days were sentimental ones for Mary and Joseph. They were happy ones spent in the humblest surroundings. When the census taking was over, they could have moved up to the inn because there was room, but it would have been an added expense, and Joseph’s carpentry in the stable had turned out so well that the young couple felt relaxed and at home among the domestic animals.

At dawn on the forty-first day, Joseph saddled the little jackass, and packed enough food and water for one day’s travel. It would be five miles up to Jerusalem and five back. Then, after a good night’s rest, they would pack everything, pay the innkeeper, and start the five-day trip to Nazareth.

Jerusalem and its great temple were like a giant hive to the Judean bees who appeared in long dusty lines along the inbound roads in the morning and who, after the last evening sacrifice, left in long slow queues, like thousands of dark insects who, after spawning, leave at a common time without communicating with each other.

In the northbound group, Joseph led the little animal and, on it, Mary and Jesus. He saw the backs of animals and people ahead of him, and he accepted the alkali dust on his lips and the gritty taste between his teeth as a concomitant of travel. The Jews they met were not friendly because it was not considered seemly to exchange greetings. In ordinary conversation, well-educated people averted eyes because it was felt to be immodest to stare into another person’s eyes.

Joseph passed the big field of the potter to the south of Jerusalem, walked up the Valley of the Kidron to the north side, and entered the Sheep Gate. He tethered the ass, and took Mary to the Gate of the Women and gave her some coins. Joseph took the baby in his arms and the mother smiled at the awkwardly tender manner in which he held Jesus, and she adjusted the folds of the swaddling clothes so that the sun would not hit the baby’s eyes.

The foster father first walked out into the courtyard and bought two turtledoves for sixteen cents. This was called the offering of the poor. A proper offering would have been a lamb, but the price of unblemished lambs on the temple grounds was seventy-five cents. In a land where the average family income probably did not exceed fifty dollars, Joseph could not afford anything but the most modest sacrifice.

The mother stood timidly in the area reserved for the women of Israel. She saw many other women, of all ages, worshiping. Then she heard the high, thin wail of the organ, which announced that incense was to be kindled on the Golden Altar. This summoned all women who had recently given birth to infants, and who had come to the temple to be purified.

Ahead of Mary were huge trumpets standing on end, their wide mouths standing like golden lilies against the marble of the house of God. She recalled Joseph’s instructions and into one of these she dropped her offering for the sacrifice. She walked up the fifteen steps to the Nicanor Gate. There were other young women with her. On the far side of the gate was the Court of Israelite Men, and females were not allowed there.

The station men of the temple met the young women and assisted in the sacrifices, the burnt offerings, the sin offerings, the drink offerings, and as the incense floated up into the blue morning sky the hymn of praise, TrisHagion, filled the cold corridors. Afterward, Mary was levitically clean, pure of stain, and could participate in sacred offerings. She rejoined Joseph and Jesus.

Joseph took the baby into the sacrificial section of the temple. The presentation ceremony was, in effect, a buying back of a son. The first-born, under Jewish law, was reserved for God. He must be free of such bodily blemishes as would bar him from the priesthood and, on his thirty-first day or after, the father must first offer the male son to God, and then redeem him from a priest. The cost was high-about $2.50.