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A Blessed Hearts Story

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There are so many other things Jesus did. If they were all written down, each of them, one by one,
I can't imagine a world big enough to hold such a library of books.John 21:25 The Message

The two boys stood behind a large man in the crowd; their view was obstructed by his girth. The older of the two was perched on a small boulder behind the man and peered over his shoulder.

“What’s happening? I can’t see a thing.” The smaller of the two called up to his brother.

“They’re on crosses… all of them…the two on the sides must have been thieves…maybe cheaters or even killers.” He laughed.

“Come on, Rueben…what’s going on?”

“The two are upside down. The one in the middle…The Roman just stabbed him with a spear and he…he’s quiet…” The younger boy tried to climb up on the rock but his brother pushed him back down, knocking him to the ground with a thud. The boy began to cry.

“Oh don’t be such a girl, Kilion…I hardly hit you. Oh…the Roman just shook his head. And everybody is yelling…’save yourself,’ or something like that. And his name…Jesse…Je….Yehoshua…”

“What…what’s his name,” Kilion called up, his voice in a panic.

“Yehoshua..yeah..that’s it…Yehoshua. Hey…didn’t you meet a man named that a few days ago.” Reuben teased his brother. The smaller boy tried to climb on the rock and his brother pushed him down once again.

“You’re such a girl Ki…what a baby!” He called after Kilion as the boy ran up the hill toward the crosses. Paying little heed, he ran right into a man standing next to three women. All of them were crying. He hadn’t seen another man cry since his father buried his mother.

“Oh, little girl,” the man said, making the same mistake many adults had been making since he was very young. “This is no place for a child.”

As the man said that, he turned and looked up at the man hanging on the cross in the center. The man was indeed the man Kilion had met days before. The one who had assured the boy that everything would be all right; that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had a plan for Kilion’s life. And now…those plans were smashed just as sure as if someone had put them in an alabaster jar and thrown them against the escarpment that lay mere feet away from where he stood.

The man looked at Kilion and smiled and then turned slightly and smiled at the man standing beside the boy.

“Here, little one; stand next to us.” It was almost an invitation, as if something good was going to take place instead of the horror that played out before the boy’s eyes.

“Come…it will be over soon.” One of the women pulled the boy close and embraced him; almost sheltering him while pointing to the scene before them. A flash of lightning split the sky while overhead he heard the roar of thunder. The crowd quieted as the man on the cross said almost in a whisper,

“There is nothing else to accomplish…it is finished.” And a moment later he was gone.

One of the women was standing beside the man next to Kilion. She stooped a bit and pulled his face gently toward hers.

“That’s my son…whatever he said he would do for you he will.” How foolish…even as she said the words the enormity of her grief overtook her faith, and she fell on the ground, weeping. Her voice was joined, not just by the other two women and the man, but many of the people in the crowd; their lament like that of a widow who appeals without hope to death to return her spouse.

But there was mocking…and laughter. Kilion looked around and watched as men and even some women smiled and pointed at the men on the crosses; their faces etched in an almost evil celebration. It was too much for him to handle. He pulled away from the man and ran back down the hill.

All of his hopes and dreams…his prayers had been daunted by a single moment in time. Whatever promises the man had made; whatever arrangements the man had bargained for with the God of the Universe died on the cross, and all of the boy’s hopes died with him.

“I know the plans I have for you,” the man had said softly, taking Kilion aside after a long discourse followed by even longer prayer and such. The boy was tired and scared that day, but the man’s voice and smile had put him as much at ease as he ever had known.

“They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” The man had said. He told Kilion everything the boy had ever known…every hurt; every taunt; every disappointment. The mornings of frustrated grief after nights of prayer. When would his…when would her deliverance come? The reflection in the puddle on the ground or the pool or the stream that mocked the poor child; what was she? Who was she. Even her name. Who would ever name their child ‘weakling?’ Was it prophecy? An omen of doom to be ever in the wrong form; ever to be alone with no hope?

But the man had said, “plans for good and not for disaster, hadn’t he? A future? A hope. What hope did a little girl have when she was doomed in less than a year to stand before the congregation and say those words, ‘Today I am a man?’
 

 
Kilion wandered for hours….the hours turned into nightfall and daybreak…again and again until he realized he was standing in a field next to an orchard. The field backed up to a hill where it was laid open with a big hold like a cave. A tall, brightly lit man sat on top of a large stone next to the cave, talking to three women. Even at that distance, he recognized two of the women as two of those he had met at the horrible scene nights before.

The tall man held his arms open wide and he seemed to be smiling. He pointed and two of the women literally ran off up the bluff right past him and down a path toward the city gate, leaving the man alone with the woman he had met…the one who told him that things would be over. And then suddenly as if by magic, the man disappeared; leaving the woman alone. She looked lost and scared. Turning to leave, she nearly ran into another bright figure.

The second man stood nearly up to her, but held his hands out when she went to touch him. They talked for a few moments before she nodded and ran up the bluff past Kilion, following the trail her friends had taken only moments before. And the man turned and faced the boy; even at that distance some how he felt the man ...it couldn't be him, could it? He was speaking to Kilion.

“Believe.”

The boy grew excited. The man…was alive…somehow he was alive. He had healed and touched lives over and over. Maybe Kilion’s prayers would come true after all? He pulled his robe out from his neck and peered down, only to be disappointed. Nothing had changed. Nothing. The promises weren’t true. He would have a future, but it would be a sad and frightening existence. He didn’t plan to cry; he had cried every night and every morning for years. But cry he did. He fell to the ground and wept; feeling worse than ever; disappointed over the betrayal of a man…the faith in the man who had promised.
 

After that, it was a blur again. Somehow Kilion made it all the way back home, not even recalling how or how long it took to get there. It was almost mid-day when he walked into the house; finding his brother and his father holding while reclining at the table in prayer. His father jumped up and ran to his side.

“Oh, child, we were so worried.” He kissed the boy on the neck over and over, repeating some quiet blessing and thanks while squeezing him tightly. As he pulled back, he felt a tug at his robe.

“I’m so sorry, Ki…Abba and I talked. I should ask forgiveness, he said, and that’s what I’m doing. I was so mean to you…and with the man dying and all that. It was bad, and I’m so sorry.” Reuben had been crying; his tears nearly matching those of his father.

“I know, child. The man…it felt like when Ama died. It hurt so bad. I was in the crowd, but you ran before I could get to you.”

“He promised, Abba.” The boy protested. He couldn’t tell his father what the promise was.

“I know, child. I felt the same way when Ama…when she got sick I prayed and prayed, O dear Abba God…it was like he didn’t hear me. Believe me, child, I know.” Kilion felt ashamed; his prayers were selfish compared to those of his father’s. What right did he have? But it still hurt; like sitting at a table starving only to have the meal taken away at the last minute. Better he had never heard the man. Better still that he had never been born.

“Your mother had so much more faith than I. It was like she knew everything would be alright . Your mother was such a talker…She could talk about almost anything, but she talked the most about you and your brother. How there was …what did she call it…Well, she even quoted the prophet. Now I have trouble remembering what I said only a few days ago and here she is quoting the prophet. She made me remember it… Now how does that go?” Aaron turned to his older boy who smiled.

“Here, Abba…let me help. ‘For I know?’” The boy smiled.

“Oh yes, ‘For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.’” He smiled at Kilion and the boy shook his head before bursting into tears.

“It will be alright, child. I know. You are special…not like other boys. Your mother and I talked about it.” Aaron hugged Kilion and stroked his hair.

“Your Ama would say, ‘Aaron, make sure you help Reuben with your work so he can grow up and be a good man and a good worker. He will build.” Reuben smiled when his father said ‘good man.’ For all the teasing he did to Kilion, he really was a good boy at heart.

“And you?” Aaron smiled.

“Ki…we’re going to live with Uncle Dov and Aunt Miriam! It’s going to be so much fun!”

“Move? But why. Abba…what did Ama say about me?” The boy looked into his father’s eyes and saw the presence of something he’d seen all along but only just then understood. His father had the heart of the Everlasting Father. The man smiled even as the tears streamed down his cheeks.

“Oh, she talked about you; how you would be such a help; she didn’t know, but now you will help your Aunt Miriam and your Cousin Rebekka and your Cousin Avigail” He smiled and winked at Reuben.

“We’re leaving tomorrow. Abba has sold his business to Uncle Shimon and we have enough to move to Nain and live there with Uncle Dov.”

“But what about me, Abba? What did Ama say?”

“Well, child, we will leave tomorrow before mid-day. Aaron ben Yamin will go to live with his brother and his brother’s wife and children. Reuben ben Aaron will leave along with his brother Kilion. But when we arrive? Aaron ben Yamin will join his brother Dov and his brother’s son Judah in business making chairs and tables and nice things with his son Reuben?

“And me, Abba?” The boy put his head down, feeling left out and defeated until his father stepped close and hugged him once again. He gently lifted the child’s head with his hand and said finally,

“Miriam will have so much more help and a blessing to her and her daughters when their cousin Ruth comes to live with them.

“Ruth?” The boy…the child…the girl finally asked, her head down once again.

“Yes, blessed daughter; Ruth.”
 

The Mother's Love
from the Motion Picture Soundtrack
of Ben Hur
composed by Miklos Rozsa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tv26qjow1M