Maria and the black sheep

Once the angel left Maria, she sat quietly and thought for a long time. The angel had asked her if she wanted to be the mother of Jesus, and she had said YES. She was happy about it, but had so much to learn and to prepare.  She should know how to take care of babies, sew diapers and weave a blanket. Make me a loom, she asked Joseph.

Maria went to see the sheep. She approached the shepherd: "Will the sheep give me some of their wool?" "Ask them yourself!" he answered.

Maria went from sheep to sheep, asking each one to give a flock of wool. "Pluck pluck" they bleated, and Maria collected lots of white flocks in her apron. In a corner of the meadow, she saw a black sheep all alone. None of the white sheep would have tolerated browsing with him nearby. Maria addressed the black sheep: "Will you give me some of your wool?" "Pluck pluck" bleated the black sheep, "take as much as you want!"

The white sheep protested: ""Bah bah. Do not take from the black sheep! He is not like us! One flock of his black wool will disgrace the whiteness of our beautiful wool and turn it to gray!"

But Maria said "This black sheep is not like you? But he is a sheep yet, and  I will also use his wool for my blanket." She went back home, cleaned the wool, and made thread of it: white thread, black thread and gray thread. And she weaved the blanket for the child: all white, with a gray star in the middle and a black border. It became a beautiful blanket.

Maria returned to the meadow and showed the blanket to the sheep. "Oooh" said the white sheep. The black sheep remained speechless with ease. "Very very nice" bleated the sheep. "Thank you" said Maria and left again. Once at the top of the hill, she turned around and waved at the sheep. They were all browsing together, the black sheep in the midst of the white sheep.

Source: Lene Mayer-Skumanz, Stories and poems for Christmas