I didn’t know what to say, so I agreed. “No king understands mercy.”
“You must say nothing of my son to Herod. Not even that you were here to see me. It is all that I ask from you or from Judah.”
“Yes. Of course.”
She held my eyes longer, then smiled faintly as if believing my intentions.
Miriam looked at one of the oil lamps on the wall. “They have rejected him, you know,” she said. “He not once spoke a word of disrespect to any in Nazareth, and yet they could not understand him. His brothers still believe him to be out of his mind. Just a quiet boy who liked to spend time alone in the hills and speak of another world in the tradition of the spiritual teachers. He was more interested in being with the birds than in learning his father’s craft. He often went to Sepphoris with the others to work with his father, but even there his fascination was with the synagogue. And with Herod’s grand theater.”
It was clear to me that Miriam rarely spoke of her son and yet had found reason to confide in me.
“Your husband was a craftsman?”
“Joseph was a simple man who worked with wood and stone, trades needed in rebuilding Sepphoris. He traveled there an hour every morning to return upon the evening.”
She faced me again. “His brothers thought Yeshua out of his mind, but they do not know him. One cannot truly know my son and remained unchanged. Perhaps the world will see that one day. But today I fear they will try to kill him.”
“The Romans? Why?”
“Because they fear the kingdom of which he speaks. Even the Jews may try to kill him—I have seen hatred here in Nazareth.”
“It is true then… that Yeshua is a great mystic who works wonders.”
“You’ve heard this? Where?”
“From a man in Arabia.”
She studied me for a moment and spoke very quietly. “He works wonders. And far more.”
The notion intrigued me, because I had known of holy men who traded in the world of wonders, but I had lost my belief in them.
“Then eventually they must embrace him,” I said.
“Perhaps. But Yeshua rises above even the Jewish way of mystery. And above all the ways of the world. I pray for his safety.”
“Then he should leave Palestine,” I said. “You are his mother, he will listen to you.”
“He is bound to the world of spirit, not to me. My son will do what he was born to do. Even as you, Maviah, must do what you were born to do for your people. And I will do what I was born to do.”
“You know what I was born to do?”
“Judah tells me that you will be a queen of the desert one day, uniting all that divides. That you will bring salvation to your people.”
“I fear Judah is a man taken by impossible dreams.”
Miriam hesitated. “I would not discount dreams so quickly, Maviah. Do what you must do. Only be careful of Herod.”
In that moment her words compelled me even more than my father’s, urging me toward my purpose, because she understood my place in the world as a woman and as a mother.
“I will.”
A knock sounded at the door. Judah, surely wondering what had become of us.
“Then go and take my blessing with you.”
I thought that Yeshua was fortunate to have a mother such as Miriam. And in small way, I thought of her as a mother to me as well.
“Thank you. You are very kind.”
She smiled at me and turned toward the door.
“Maviah…”
I turned back. “Yes?”
“You will find that Yeshua loves you.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
SOMETHING IN me shifted in my short time with Miriam there in that desolate town of Nazareth, but I did not know what. Perhaps it was only the fact that Miriam, mother to a boy who’d been rejected in his home, had embraced my mission.
But in expressing concern for her son’s safety, she’d sown worry in me for my own. I found myself overwhelmed as we approached the city of Sepphoris, that city looming on the hill so close to Nazareth, yet I kept my thoughts to myself.
When Judah asked me what Miriam had spoken to me, I told him that she’d consoled me for my loss and asked that we make no mention of her or Yeshua to Herod. And yet both Judah and Saba could tell I had been deeply affected by my encounter with her.
“So now you know, Maviah,” Judah said as we left Nazareth. “The stars tell us only the truth.”
I could not deny it. “Yes.”
“And you, Saba. There can be no doubt.”
“Your stars have spoken,” Saba said. “What they mean, no one can know.”
“What more is there to know? For out of Bethlehem will come a ruler who will shepherd Israel, as it is written. Now we know that Yeshua is this ruler, even as my elders have seen. Rome will fall.”