Jesus' suffering Easter 2011-dedicated to Carrie Underwood

Jesus' suffering Easter 2011

Dedicated to Carrie Underwood who sang How Great thou art on TV and then broke down and cried with happiness and inspired this story

fiction
edward w pritchard

The boy had left some valuable finished wood laying in the rain and the boy's Father's friends were chastising the workshop owner, who was also the boy's Father, for not beating the son. The boy at twelve was clumsy and absentminded and would never be able to function as an apprentice elsewhere save for the fact that his Father was the owner of the carpentry workshop.

Mary the Mother intervened between her son Jesus and husband Joseph. Mary knew Joseph would not strike the boy for Joseph was a kind and righteous man. Still she worried over what her husband might say. Jesus had gotten hyper sensitive to criticism of late and Mary sought to protect him.

As a baby Jesus had amazed the neighborhood and Mary was rightly proud. Jesus was precocious verbally and at a very young age he was unusually athletic and strong. Joseph and Jesus before Jesus could walk often played a game where Joseph would twirl the baby boy in a rapid circle and in a mid air swing Joseph would let go and Jesus would be secured only by his grasping his Father's wrists. This would continue until one of the elderly women in the village would beg Mary to stop the dangerous activity. First to leave the house as a boy Jesus was on the go until dusk leading the neighborhood children. Later in the Father's workshop Jesus straightened nails at age six, measured and precisely cut wood at age eight and by age ten could unassisted produce a table or chest suitable for commercial sale.

Now at age twelve Jesus was solitary spending most of the nights bent over an obscure religious text reading by candle light not moving in his chair for hours on end. During the day Jesus was inattentive to his woodworking duties, seldom speaking, and if doing so infuriating his Father with arcane Religious questions. Additionally Jesus had taken to brooding and was becoming unpopular in the village. Both Mary and Joseph were genuinely concerned about their son.

Mary despite a Mother's love had recently agreed with Joseph to allow the boy to speak to a Doctor specializing in emotional problems among youth. Crying alone Mary prayed for her son to again be just a normal boy. At such times Jesus would stand at his Mother's side next to the chair he had made her a few years ago and silently rest his hand on her shoulder.
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