Month: December 2015

This may be my favorite week of the year — the lull between Christmas and New Years. The traveling is done and/or the travelers who came to see you are headed back home. For most of us, work is slow. Salespeople aren’t calling and clients aren’t answering. School hasn’t yet started. There’s just not a lot going on. Unless, of course, you’re in retail, in which case, may the Good Lord be with you. Especially if you have to work the returns counter. (Be nice to those folks — it’s not their fault.) That said, this is a good time … Read more…

This is the concluding post in the Ghosts Around the Manger series. Betrayals open a floodgate of questions and those, alone, were painful enough. He didn’t even want to know the answers. Joseph dealt with his hurt the only way he knew how. He threw himself into his work trying to bury his anguish in the sawdust of the carpentry shop. He felt sure of himself there. He might have misjudged Mary, but he knew good wood when he saw it. In the shop, he could smooth out rough edges and make all the corners square. When something was nailed … Read more…

This post is part of the Ghosts Around the Manger series. His whole world was dust and timber, hammers and saws, blisters and blue fingernails. In the winter, he used the scrap lumber that littered the shop to build fires to warm his hands before he worked with better wood to build a shelf for this customer, a table for that one. In the summer, sawdust beaded around his sweaty neck and filled the wrinkles of his robes, dusted his feet and tickled his nose until he sneezed. He could see the finished job in his mind before he even countersunk the … Read more…

For background on this series see Ghosts Around the Manger. Ruth lay there at his feet the rest of the night. Quietly, discreetly she left, but not before Boaz filled her shawl with as much grain as she could carry. In the semi-darkness of dawn, Ruth hurried home to Naomi. She could see the lamp in the window even before she opened the door and walked in to find her mother-in-law waiting. Naomi had been up all night, but she looked fresh, awake, alive. “How did it go?” she asked. Ruth’s broad smile conveyed the answer. Naomi held out her hands … Read more…

For background on this series please see Ghosts Around the Manger. Naomi turned in her chair at the sound of the sack of grain hitting the floor. Curly cues of dust swirled in the air around Ruth, outlining the late afternoon rays of sun that angled through the open door. Then Naomi saw the grain. “Who’s field did you work in today?” she asked. “Who has shown such kindness?” “The man’s name was Boaz,” Ruth answered. The name registered in Naomi’s memory. “Boaz! He is a relative. A close one. So the Lord has not forgotten after all.” Like blossoms in … Read more…

For background on this series see Ghosts Around the Manger. The young woman caught his eye even before he slid off his mount and stepped onto the soft earth of the wheat field. She was gleaning with the poor who followed along behind the paid workers, scrounging what they could to feed their families. “The Lord be with you,” he called, meaning it. They stopped their work and looked up at his greeting. Boaz of Bethlehem took the old laws seriously, especially the ones about leaving the edges and corners of the fields unharvested so that Israel’s poor could find … Read more…

Thank you for your on- and off-line comments regarding the initial installment of the Ghosts Around the Manger series. I appreciate your encouragement more than you can know. Next Monday, I’ll post the next chapter. Based on the Book of Ruth, it is titled A Love Story. Till then, be blessed. JV

For an introduction to this series, read Ghosts Around the Manger. Abraham set the last stone and looked up, praying for a heavenly stay. Emptiness filled his eyes. Silence rang in his ears. He pulled a long, thin strip of leather from his belt and turned toward Isaac. The boy asked no questions and offered no resistance as his father bound his wrists and ankles. Abraham’s heart bowed under the weight of his son’s trust. He lifted Isaac tenderly as a father lifts his newborn son, and placed him on the altar. Abraham slid a blanket under the boy’s head … Read more…

(For an introduction to this series see Ghosts Around the Manger).   Abraham rose with the sun, though he had not slept. He saddled his donkey and summoned two servants. He took an ax and strode toward a pile of wood at the edge of the clearing where their tents were pitched. Confused, the servants hurried after him. “Master, allow us the pleasure of cutting the wood for you,” the older of the two offered. Abraham silenced them with a wave of his hand. The command to make the sacrifice to God had been given to him. He would not … Read more…

(For background on this series, read the introduction, Ghosts Around the Manger) “How long will you be gone?” she asked. “A week. More. I don’t know,” he answered, dragging the long knife across the smooth stone. He lifted the weapon and examined it with old, weary eyes. A glint of the fading sun flashed off the silvery blade. “Where are you going?” “To the region of Moriah. More than that I do not know. He will show the way. He always does.” She had seen him this way before; driven, focused, possessed. She twisted a strand of gray hair tightly around … Read more…