The big rock’s secret
(unknown origin)
 3:16
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One day, as they were on their way to Bethlehem, Mary and Joseph came upon an enormous rock. It lay right across the road, so that travellers were forced either to climb over it or to cut their way through the brambles to the right and left of it.
There was something special about this rock. When the road was being laid it had taken the strength of seven strong men to roll the rock aside, but on their return to work the next day the massive stone was back in its old place as though it had never been moved. The strong men grumbled and cursed and set about removing it once again. They rolled it onto the roadside, but the following day it was back again where it had been before. The men swore even more angrily than before, but they set to work a third time, and mustering all their strength they pushed the rock off the road.
However, when on the following day they found the rock back in its old place, as though it had always been there, the men did not swear any more, not one of them, because they began to wonder why this was happening.
As nobody could tell them why, they went to a holy man who lived by himself in the forest and told him about the rock that kept moving back to the same place. The holy man listened to them attentively, nodded his head in understanding, and told them: "The One Who will be able to remove this stone has not yet come. Therefore, leave it where it is and let the One Who is destined to do so move it away." The strong men listened to this advice, and the stone remained lying across the road to the inconvenience of many travellers.
When Mary and Joseph came to this rock, they stopped in front of it. Of course, Joseph could not simply roll it away, not even with the help of the little donkey. While they were standing there deliberating what to do, Joseph accidentally tapped on the rock with his stick. It was a very light tap, and Joseph did it unintentionally, yet no sooner had his stick touched the rock than it fell into two parts, one part falling away to the right of the road and the other to the left. They could now see that the enormous rock was full of crystals that began to sparkle beautifully in the sunlight.
A little while later the holy man came along the road. When he saw the cleft rock and the Crystals shining inside it he smiled and said to himself. The One destined to remove the rock has come," and his heart was filled with hope and joy.
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