made in bethlehem

realizing that a manger scene was missing from my holiday decor, i walked the aisles of a store that promises one-stop shopping; everything from milk to socks but, to my chagrin, no baby Jesus.  i looked again, surely i had missed the creche aisle.  candy, bows, legos, keychains, garden tools, paint, tape, rugs...when a store employee with an apron on approached, i asked if they had a creche section.  "a what?"  she queried.  "you know, a manger scene, mary & joseph and jesus and all" i explained with a "lions and tigers and bears oh my" lilt in my voice.  "gosh, i dunno" she said, adding "lemme call to the back.....yeah, roger, do we have any jesus scene things in stock this year?...i didn't think so, yeah, ok." and to me, "sorry, we stopped ordering those last year or something."  "thanks anyway...merry christmas," i said and pushed my cart toward the bread and oranges.  when i told someone at work about my quest, a volunteer overheard me. "do you need a manger scene?  because i have two; an extra one i don't need.  they were even made in the holy land."  later that day a plastic bag arrived in my classroom with a hand-carved olive wood creche, complete with a sticker that reads, "made in the west bank, bethlehem" on the back.  i winked up at heaven and mused to myself that i couldn't have gotten a better manger scene if i'd gone to the holy land myself.  after all, great things were made in bethlehem.