Reply from Uncle Samuel

Bob Choi

31 December 2010

February 25 of the Year One A.D.

Dear Joseph,

Your letter arrived today. The Roman mail service has indeed improved tremendously. It used to take well over six months for a letter to come from Bethlehem. Now it took only two months. We are all delighted to hear about the birth of your child “Jesus” even though the name does sound a bit odd. I searched high and low among our ancestry books of names and could not find even one single entry of the name “Jesus”. Well, I am sure we will all get used to it. Who knows? It might even become a household name like Goldberg or Iceberg.

The events you described on the night when Jesus was born was indeed intriguing. The children singing with lighted candles and the three kings from the East bringing “Christmas presents” were rather unusual, to say the least! I shared this with Brother Einstein who is arguably the smartest person in the whole of Nazareth, but even he could not make either heads or tails of it. He was dumbfounded and could not come up with a plausible explanation. If Einstein could not figure it out, it is probably not meant to be understood by us human folks! As long as this is not going to happen regularly from now on, I suggest we should just leave it at that. If it ever happens again, we would need to find out who is behind all this.

Your curiosity towards Mary’s mystery is perfectly understandable. I would have been just as curious if my wife (your aunt Vera) had delivered a virgin birth herself! All I can say is that God works in mysterious ways…and let’s leave it at that.

Now I have some important news to share with you. Several brothers from Nazareth and I are planning on a secret journey by sea to a destination unknown. I will be the captain of the ship. We all have pledged top secrecy and not to divulge any information about this journey other than the fact that it is sponsored and organized by someone at very high places. Each of the crew members was carefully chosen. We will embark off the coast of Galilee in just a few days. We don’t know where we are going or when we will get there. We were told that this journey would bring forth a “New World” and would change the history of mankind, so we are all very excited. I am particularly enthused because they said if we reach our destination, they will consider naming it after me!

Several of my good buddies are going on this journey with me. Remember uncle Bloomberg, Spielberg and Madoff? They all have been chosen for this special journey. We will all have a great time. I am sure of it.

I don’t know when if ever I will write you again, so please take care and God blesses you and your family!

Love,

Uncle Samuel Ackerman