Jerusalem

Dear Rachel:

I received your message saying that you, Eliab and Rebecca would not be able to come to Jerusalem for Passover this year, so Jonathan and I have decided to observe the Festival of Freedom with you and your family in Bethsaida.

We will travel by donkey to the great fish market at the south end of Gennesaret then go by a fish trader's boat from there.

Does it surprise you that I, a woman, will travel with the sometimes raucous fishermen? Of course Jonathan will be with me. A few years ago I wouldn't have thought of such a thing, even though my husband would have been along. But things have changed since Jesus, the Nazarene, came and taught us new things. Even though he has gone now, bodily, the stories are told, over and over, about how he had conversed with a woman at a well. A Samaritan woman in Samaria! And he saved a woman from Magdala from being stoned in the public square. Some say he once supported a woman who had been roughly criticized for being a spendthrift with some costly perfume and, in turn, scolded the criticizers because they had not understood her motive. The stories go on and on, corroborated by many who still live and were witnesses.

There are groups of women who meet in nearby Bethany to talk about these things. One of the favorite stories is about a woman who suffered from some illness. She just touched the hem of Jesus' garment and he, noticing, healed her instantly.

Phoebe of Bethlehem was there at Bethany one day and after re-telling of some of those stories, she got up and flutteringly danced around the room, saying, "We're now like butterflies emerging from hardened, ancient chrysalises.

Some day these marvelous accounts of what this Jesus did and said will be written and put into some sort of scroll. Maybe it will become a part of the Scriptures we already have.

This message may not arrive before we do. Jonathan is giving it to a friend who is traveling to Bethsaida. He may be slow or even waylaid along the trail for he is going through dangerous Samaria. I hope you will notice if the seal has been broken before you open it. There is still much need for secrecy.

Our trip up to Bethsaida should be pleasant. We will go over to Bethany and down to Jerico for our first day's journey. We have friends to stay with there. Then, up the Jordan valley. It should be pretty this time of the year. Of course, there will be some rough and rocky places, but there will be little patches of poppies in full bloom. And if the breeze is from the west we will get the fragrance of the fig trees for they, too, will be in bloom.

I suppose most people we meet will be coming south toward Jerusalem and the Temple for the Passover. They might wonder why we are going north.

We will choose daylight to go up the lake, perhaps just as the sun tops the Moab hills and glints on the blue waves. Have you ever heard of Gennesaret being in the shape of a harp? I suppose like the one David played to calm his sheep and old Saul.

I wonder if the breezes playing over the waves of the lake make some kind o music we can't yet hear. As you know, I have a fanciful mind. Much like the woman who compared Jesus' treatment of women to butterflies emerging from cramping chrysalises.

Shalom,

Your sister, Anna.

REJOICE!

~Jean Bell Mosley is an author and longtime columnist for the Southeast Missourian.