More about the Leah story
The idea for this story actually came to me while I was back home in Kerry for Christmas one year.
I was listening to a furious debate on the local radio about whether the Innkeeper in the Nativity story was really mean for putting Mary and Joseph in a stable, or whether, perhaps, he was thoughtful of Mary’s need for privacy and was actually very considerate.
One caller was talking about how all the inns would have been full and that Mary would not have wanted to go into labour in the midst of strangers. The discussion made me think aout Mary not as ‘the Mother of God’ but as a young pregnant woman, on her own, away from her mother or sisters about to give birth to her first child. It made me realise how much the Nativity story washes over us, its familiarity making us blind to the human fragility of Mary and the physicality of birth at the centre of the story.
I spoke with Margaret at length about it and she went away and wrote this absolutely wonderful story - a beautiful gift for children wanting to understand the nativity and great way for children growing up outside of the Christian tradition to engage with it.
I was listening to a furious debate on the local radio about whether the Innkeeper in the Nativity story was really mean for putting Mary and Joseph in a stable, or whether, perhaps, he was thoughtful of Mary’s need for privacy and was actually very considerate.
One caller was talking about how all the inns would have been full and that Mary would not have wanted to go into labour in the midst of strangers. The discussion made me think aout Mary not as ‘the Mother of God’ but as a young pregnant woman, on her own, away from her mother or sisters about to give birth to her first child. It made me realise how much the Nativity story washes over us, its familiarity making us blind to the human fragility of Mary and the physicality of birth at the centre of the story.
I spoke with Margaret at length about it and she went away and wrote this absolutely wonderful story - a beautiful gift for children wanting to understand the nativity and great way for children growing up outside of the Christian tradition to engage with it.
