She knew the time was close. The birthing pains had started in the early evening and were beginning to come more frequently. Between spasms of pain the girl thought back over the events of the past year.

It had all seemed so dreamlike at the time. The boy she had grown up shyly admiring from a distance had persuaded his family to contract for her to marry him! For the weeks of negotiations leading up to their betrothal she had been so light of spirit that she was almost surprised to be leaving footprints in the ground! Her betrothed was everything a young girl in a country village could hope for. He was inheriting a well-respected family business as his father's oldest son - a fact that meant he would also eventually receive a "double portion" of inheritance; something that would set them up as a family with relative financial stability. 

And more - her beau came from the direct line of King David and had many relatives living in Bethlehem itself! She herself was related to one of the priestly clans, a fact not lost on the devout family of her intended and which had improved her chances of achieving a "good match" for the rest of her life. [1]

And then, a few weeks after the betrothal ceremonies, her world seemed to come crashing down - the day the angel called on her! Fortunately she had been by herself at the time. Being, at 13 years old, one of the youngest girls in her family, she always drew the worst of the daily chores that made up village life. That day, she had been left to spread out on their flat roof the various seeds and spices that needed drying undisturbed in the hot sun. 

So engrossed was she in her task (and in thinking about her fiance) that the strong but gentle male greeting from behind her nearly made her fall over the edge of the roof. "Shalom, favoured lady! Adonai is with you," the angel had opened with, before dropping the bombshell that she (the very ordinary and now terrified village girl from Natzeret in Galilee) would give birth to the long-awaited Messiah of Israel. But the second and more problematic bombshell was that this would be a miraculous pregnancy that would not involve her husband-to-be! 

She had hurriedly arranged to meet her fiance (not easy in a culture where the couple should not be seen fraternising until after their wedding) and tearfully shared the visitation with him. As she expected, he didn't believe her and initially dismissed her experience as a dream. He soon pretty much forgot about the incident as his bride-to-be and her mother had gone to visit a relative near Jerusalem, who was rumoured to have become pregnant in spite of being elderly and barren. 

But the girl knew - and she also knew what had happened to her the night she sensed an overwhelming presence of the kavod (the glory) of God saturate her body and soul. She was pregnant with the child of God Himself! This was confirmed when her relative Elisheva had greeted her with a blessing and a blessing on the baby in her womb - before hearing of the young girl's experiences. [ Luke 1:39-41 ]

The girl and her mother had stayed with Elisheva until her baby had been born and named before returning to Natzeret. [2] Her mother knew of the visitation and had chosen to believe her daughter, knowing that she was too naive and innocent to have imagined all this in such detail. 

Her mother was with her when she had broken the news to her betrothed of the miraculous pregnancy and the poor girl had collapsed in tears when her fiance had talked of quietly breaking the engagement - something that would bring everlasting shame on her and her family and probably condemn her to a life of virginity and isolation. However, he changed his tune after the same angel visited him in a dream one night and assured him of the truth of what the girl and her mother had told him. [ Matthew 1:20 ]

Salvation came from a surprising quarter, however, and saved her marriage and her embarassment.  

Another, longer, birthing pain brought her back to reality and to the words of advice from the village midwife and her husband's female relatives.
[ What! You think Joseph birthed his son?? ]

The Roman emperor Augustus chose an opportune time to announce a taxation census! These infrequent national head-counts involved every family head returning to his town of origin to register for paying taxes to the imperial treasury. The young girl's fiance immediately saw a way out of their predicament. Asking for a meeting with the heads of both families, his own father and that of his betrothed, he proposed that their wedding be brought forward by some months. This would enable him to travel to Bethlehem with his new wife and still be in plenty of time for the census and for the pilgrim feast of Succot (Tabernacles) in the Autumn.  

The two families had agreed to this, the wedding had duly taken place early and the young couple had set off for Bethlehem before her pregnancy was obvious to all.  

The pains were coming faster now - the time was near! Servants had lit lamps and prepared cloths and water. As the house was already overcrowded with other relatives here for the census, the domestic animals' sleeping area had been vacated and cleaned up and the feeding trough built into one wall had been prepared as a makeshift crib. [3]

The journey to Bethlehem had taken five days. They had taken the Jordan Valley route, which was mainly level or gently downhill all the way to Jericho. They were travelling before the "pilgrim rush" to reach Jerusalem in time for Succot, but had made friends with some other families going the same route as them. Only the last day, from Jericho all the way up to Bethlehem, had caused the new husband anxiety for his pregnant wife. He had given her a seat on their mule and the family servant and his wife's maid had helped carry their luggage.  

Another, sharper pain.

Joseph's family had greeted the young couple enthusiastically. His plan meant that all they needed to know was that the couple were married and that Miriam was now pregnant with their first child. [4] And so the last weeks of Miriam's pregnancy were spent getting to know her husband's family, especially as Joseph and the other men went up to Jerusalem every day, a few miles away, to present themselves to the Lord and celebrate the feast of Succot. And now his family would help bring her miraculous baby into the world. These past few weeks had been so busy, in fact, that she had missed the phenomenon of a bright new star in the sky - a star spotted in faraway Babylon by certain astrologers (but that's another story)! 

Another pain - must be almost time now. But now with the pain came that familiar "overshadowing" of the glory of God, bringing peace to her body and soul.

And the new star grew brighter and lit up the quiet village streets. 

And father-to-be Joseph waited nervously with his male relatives. 

And the animals quietened, as if they knew what was about to come about. 

And in the silence and peace of that holy night, the baby that would save the world slipped into humanity's gaze and was laid in an animals' feeding trough in the stable area of a poor house in a humble village long foretold as the birthplace of the Messiah of Israel - the news only proclaimed by heaven to even poorer, despised people - shepherds camped in the fields with their sheep! 

The next day, exhausted by the birth of her son, Miriam was resting with the swaddled baby in her arms when the shepherds came looking for them with stories of angels singing and announcing that Messiah had been born the night before and had been laid to rest in a manger - is this him? 

And The Plan entered a new phase of love and salvation...

Footnotes :

[1]  This first part of the story is not based on biblical or historical proofs but on a general idea of what life in a village must have been like. Joseph was probably older than Mary, who would have been a young "teenager". In a "city" the size of a village she would surely have known him and his family. I have also based this part on what we know about marriage in the ancient Middle East and Israel in particular - https://www.bibleodyssey.org/en/passages/related-articles/weddings-and-marriage-traditions-in-ancient-israel

[2]  The approximate birth date for Jesus could be calculated if we know when John was born; even more when he was conceived. I have followed a popular line of interpretation that calculates both these and puts the birth of Jesus around the Feast of Tabernacles (September/October time) and not on December 25th! See for example https://pursiful.com/2006/12/18/when-was-jesus-born-zechariahs-priestly-service/

[3]  This is based one numerous sources describing ancient Israelite houses of Jesus' day. I have set Joseph's family as sufficiently well-off to have some servants or slaves and a guest room (maybe a structure on the flat roof). Since the animals probably had separate space within the lower levels of the house (lower than or below the main rooms), Mary and Joseph have the support of the family, extending to using the animals? quarters to accommodate the couple within the family home.

[4]  Was this deceitful? Would the Bethlehem family have accepted Mary if they knew she was pregnant before marriage? It's difficult to see how they could get round this problem (at both ends of the journey) without blatantly lying! Since the betrothal period was not as fixed as it later became for part of Judaism, I felt it was a reasonable solution to bring the wedding forward so they could leave Nazareth - married - before Mary had a "baby bump?!"