JOY ALONG THE WAY: SWADDLING CLOTHES SPARK CURIOSITY

Few persons will remember when they first heard the term swaddling clothes. The best bet is that it was when they first heard the Christmas story read from Luke. Did they wonder and stop to ask of the reader? I'm sure I didn't, but as the years went by and I heard that term over and over I asked Mama, "What are swallowing clothes? "Swaddling clothes," she corrected. "Once upon a time it was what new babies were wrapped in." I suppose that satisfied me for the time. Had I pressed Mama I wonder if she could have explained.

It was many years later that I decided to make a more in-depth study of the term. I learned that they were narrow strips of cloth that were wrapped around newborn babies, somewhat like bandages. The baby was first laid on a square of cloth that was wrapped around the baby, then the narrow strips were wrapped over this cloth, round and round the body. The arms were wrapped separately from the body but then laid down alongside the body and wrapped with the body strips.

The baby Jesus so wrapped looked like a little mummy as pictured by artists portraying these ancient times.

When I saw such restriction of the arms it bothered me a lot. Further study told me that this restraint made it easier for the mother to put the baby into a cradle, which were very rude affairs at that early time. Poor baby. We don't see the baby Jesus so pictured on modern artwork such as Christmas cards.

I wonder, when Mary started with Joseph for Bethlehem to be enrolled, if, knowing her time was near for the birth, took some swaddling clothes along? Had she been lovingly preparing them in the preceding months as modern mothers gather together a layette.

There were several types of cloth then animal skins, woven camel's hair cloth, woolen, silk and linen. The first three would have been far too rough for a baby's skin. Silk would have been too expensive for Mary and Joseph since they could offer only two pigeons as a sacrifice when the baby was presented to the Lord at the Temple. That leaves linen, which seems sensible as flax was grown in the region. Perhaps Mary even helped sow the flax seed, harvest the long stems, extract the fibers and embark on the long tedious task of spinning the fibers into thread, all with love because she, no doubt, hugged to her heart what she knew was to come to pass. Some historians say that in some cases the swaddling cloths were richly embroidered. I doubt that Mary did this because colored threads were expensive.

Perhaps Joseph and Mary, on their way south, stopped at Mary's relative, Elizabeth, who already had a baby son, John -- John the Baptist who was about six months old. Perhaps Elizabeth had saved John's swaddling cloths and lent them to Mary.

Maybe Mary arrived in Bethlehem without any swaddling clothes at all. Did she tear some strips from her own clothing to "dress" the baby before laying him in the manger? Maybe the inn keeper's wife, being aware of what was happening that star-lit night, took some swaddling clothes down to the animals' shelter where Mary's son was born.

Did Mary save the swaddling clothes in case she and Joseph should have some children?

REJOICE!

Jean Bell Mosley is an author and longtime resident of Cape Girardeau.