Miriam 

By the time Miriam was born, Joseph had built a comfortable crib for her in which she could nestle while the family admired her.

When she was seven years old, Jesus began homeschooling Miriam, since girls were not allowed to go to school like the boys. And she and Jesus got along together very well. But James took over homeschooling when Miriam was eleven. And when little Ruth got old enough, Miriam took her in hand.

By the time she was fourteen years old, Miriam had become a beautiful young girl, the loveliest of the family, if not the whole city.

And by the time she was sixteen, she was earning a considerable amount from the sale of milk and butter from the family’s cow.

When Miriam was fifteen years old, she became a confidant to Rebecca, sixteen years old, who had fallen in love with Jesus. Rebecca confided her feelings about Jesus to Miriam and Miriam talked to her mother, Mary, about it.

Mary was very worried. Was she about to lose her son, now the indispensable head of the family? After she and Miriam had talked this matter over, they decided to make an effort to stop it before Jesus learned about it. They went directly to Rebecca, laying the whole story before her, and honestly telling her about their belief that Jesus was a son of destiny; that he was to become a great religious leader, perhaps the Messiah.

Although Rebecca listened intently to what Miriam and Mary said, she could not be talked out of proposing marriage to Jesus. But in the end, Jesus declined her marriage proposal.

Miriam, knowing fully about the exchange with Rebecca and knowing how her brother had forsaken even the love of a beautiful maiden, came to idealize Jesus and to love him with a touching and profound affection as for a father as well as for a brother.

In 18, CE, when Miriam was 19 years old, Miriam approached Jesus with her plans for marriage to Jacob, the young stone mason. This one-time, self-appointed champion of Jesus, now business associate of James and Joseph, had long sought to gain Miriam’s hand in marriage. After Miriam had laid her plans before Jesus, he told Miriam that Jacob should come to him and make a formal request for her and promised his blessing for the marriage as soon as she felt that her younger sister Martha was competent to assume her duties as eldest daughter.

Two years later, in November, 20 CE, when Miriam was 21 years old, a double wedding occurred. James and Esta, and Miriam and Jacob were married. It was truly a joyous occasion.

Miriam and Jacob lived next door to Mary in the home of Jacob’s father, with the elder having been laid to rest with his fathers. Martha took Miriam’s place in the home as the elder daughter, and the new organization was working smoothly before the year ended.