A.D. 30(114)

A groan broke from my throat and I began to shake with sobs, overwhelmed by such exquisite relief, for I, like the son in his parable, had been lost, but now I was found.

Waves of light seemed to sweep over and through me, filling my veins and my bones with warm love. I was awash in the kingdom of heaven. And there was no end to those waves of light… they were eternal. Time had vanished.

He was gone, I finally realized. And yet he was still with me, as near as my own breath.

I don’t know how long I wept; I only know that when I then sighed a great breath and opened my eyes, morning had come.

The sight offered to me by my two eyes was still blurred, but this was of no consequence. I was seeing with new eyes. Eyes that did not require the light of the sun in this sky.

The light of the kingdom of heaven was bright within me.

I stood unsteadily, slowly gathered myself, looked once more about the grove to see that I was still alone, then walked down the hill.

The time had come to save Judah.





CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE





I FOUND IT strange, my return to the house in Bethsaida where Saba, Stephen, and Sarah waited in the courtyard, eating bread. Strange because I saw the world differently now. Not as I once had been, but as I now was.

I still could not see them with clarity, but I had an uncanny idea of what was around me. By some unknown sense, I was more aware of my surroundings.

When I walked into the courtyard, all three stood up at once, anticipating me, for they knew I had been alone all night. Perhaps they also knew that Yeshua had gone to me. I don’t know.

But there was nothing to report in words that might make sense to them, I thought. I was only to be who I was, the daughter of my Father in that kingdom now so real to me.

My body’s eyes had not changed—they were still fogged and half blind. But something about my countenance moved my companions.

“He came to you,” Stephen said with wonder.

I nodded. “Yes.”

He was silent.

“We must leave for Tiberias immediately,” I said.

Elias had waited on the north shore, I learned. Having seen the storm calmed, yesterday he had gone to hear with his own ears the teaching of this teacher.

Our passage back to Tiberias was quiet, for each of us was still lost in the mystery of all we had seen.

Sarah took my arm as we sat at the bow, and she pulled me close. I placed my hand over hers and we became like sisters there, without speaking a word. We shared Yeshua’s power like a secret too great to be announced.

Only when we landed and Stephen was to take Sarah back to Sepphoris did we four speak with more than words in passing. Our paths diverged on the hill overlooking Tiberias.

“You are certain you need nothing more from us?” Stephen asked.

“You have given more than we can ask,” Saba said. “Maviah will follow her own way now.”

“His way,” Sarah said.

I looked at her, then gently placed my hand on her arm. “His way.”

“And what is his way, then?” Stephen asked, for he’d been eager to hear more since leaving Bethsaida.

“But you know, Stephen,” I said. “You told me yourself.”

His eyes lit up. “Then I was right.”

“Perhaps more than you can know.”

He stepped up to me and fell to one knee.

“Then you are blessed, Maviah! Few among my people bow before women, but my eyes now see a queen who is blessed by Yeshua!”

I wanted to tell him to stand, or to kneel with him, for I was no more a queen than he a king. But I remained as I was, for all that I had once taken as truth was now suspect. Was I not a queen? A new truth had entered my mind, and much of it was still a mystery to me.

“Do we not both follow Yeshua now?”

He stood slowly. “Yes.”

“And I,” Sarah said.

I looked at Saba.

“And I,” he said, bowing his head.

“Then we will part ways,” Stephen said. “And one day, by his grace, we will join again, followers of Yeshua’s way.”

Though we had been strangers only days ago, there on the hill we stood as one.

“He said something to me.” I looked in the direction of Tiberias spread out below us. “He said there is far more to be revealed in time. Only then will we be able to follow where he goes.”

“And where does he go?” Sarah asked.

“We don’t know. But what we have seen is only the half of it.”

“The half of it!” Stephen said. “This is only the beginning. The world will not contain those who calm the seas. This is his way.”

And it was, I thought. To calm the seas and walk on water—Yeshua could surely do both if he pleased.

I looked at Stephen, remembering the rest. “And his way is easily forgotten. He said as much.”