"WHAT? YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS?" I shouted in disbelief. "What do you mean there wasn't a donkey?" Clearly this nun had gone mad. She smiled angelically at me and persevered.
"Most scholars agree that given Mary and Joseph's social and economic position, it's unlikely that they would ever have travelled on a donkey. And of course there's no scriptural evidence to support the idea that there was a donkey."
Evidence? She wants evidence?
"But what about the Christmas carol 'Little Donkey'?" I asked triumphantly. "What about all those Christmas cards with the donkey on? Everyone knows there was a donkey. How else did they get from Nazareth to Bethlehem?"
"They walked or possibly hitched a ride on a wagon," she offered, rather prosaically. Huh. What does a nun know about the Bible? I immediately started scouring the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. There must be a donkey here somewhere. Nope, nothing. I double checked. No, not even a whiff. I recoiled in horror. My world had collapsed.
I was 16 at the time, studying scripture for my A-Levels, and the nun who had broken this earth-shattering news was my teacher. I looked at Sister Mary Stephen in her habit, gently shaking her head at me. "It doesn't matter that there wasn't a donkey," she said calmly.
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