His Eyes

Pain subsiding. Breathing out, she opened her eyes and looked into his. His eyes were dark with concern, stormy with his fear for her, and for the baby. His jaw set.

"No, Joseph. I am OK. They are  ~ well ~ not close."
She turned her hand and held it to her belly, "There! See, he kicks and plays. We are fine."
A solid smack hit squarely on Joseph's hand, making them both laugh.
As she readjusted her seating, Joseph gripped the lead and lengthened his stride. "Not long now. We will be there before the nightfall. Then a room and a bed .... "

She saw beyond the smile he gave with his mouth to the storm in his eyes. "Oh, he has more to carry than I." 

 She remembered their story in flashes :

 The first time she saw him, setting down a load of wood, to lift a tiny girl from the dust where she had fallen, his voice tender, his eyes soft.

 The first time she caught his eyes. She had looked up from the well into his eyes. The world had stopped. Her breath had stopped.

 The look her gave to her across the room when her father had given his consent.

 But then ~ the look he gave her when she had to tell him she was with child. Rage, then shock, then grief. His eyes turned to stone, then he turned his eyes away and stumbled from the room. She thought the world would end.  

 "I thought an angel would have come to him too. Why did You not tell him when You told me? 'May it be to me as You have spoken...'  No ... no, I meant that. But I did not think...I knew in that one moment that I --  all I had was You."

 And then! 
THEN!! 
Then his eyes ~ the joy, the hope, the fear, "My Mary! I...I had a dream...God spoke to me....please forgive me, please!" his eyes raining into her lap. " I could not believe you, but now...Mary, I have finished the house."
Taking Joseph's hand she had placed it then on her belly where the child grew. Jesus had kicked then for the first time.
His eyes and hers mirroring awe, the awe they shared alone.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

... and GOD

              Elijah             some ravens at a brook                                  a widow and her son                                                                         Ahab           Obadiah                ...
Read more

"The Kings and the Prophets" or "What profiteth it a man to gain the whole world and loose his soul?"

In the Northern Kingdom ~ Israel ~ the king, Jeroboam, has a son named Abijah. He is sick. It must have been really bad because he tells his wife to disguise herself and go to Shiloh to talk to the prophet Ahijah. He says, "Go to Shiloh, Abijah the prophet is there -- the one who told me I would be king over this people." That tells me that he must have told his wife about the prophetic encounters he had had: ripped cloak, dried up hand and broken altar. I wonder about her...what did she think? Did she know God at all, or just 'about' him? She goes to this prophet and gets "schooled" -- as they say. She disguises herself as her husband asked and is greeted with, " Come in wife of Jeroboam. Why the pretence?" The prophet proceeds to tell her MUCH more than she, I am guessing, expected to hear. He tells her what God thinks and feels -- here are some of the 'high-lights':     ~ Go tell Jeroboam that this is what the LORD, the God of Israel s...
Read more

The mirror

Reading the story of Ahab in a chunk, as it were, (instead of reading part of it one time, then another part -- or only reading only the part of the story referred to during a sermon) actually makes me feel uncomfortable. It is like this: have you ever watched a movie where one of the characters makes a stupid decision, or walks into a trap? OK, confession time: when that happens to me, I find myself yelling at the screen : "STOP! Don't do that!" -- or some equally inane warning. I bet you do too -- well maybe not you , but some people do. That is how I find myself feeling as I read this story -- only what I want to do is yell at God , "Just kill Ahab! He is going to go on being a jerk! What? You didn't kill him after that??? NO lightening? Really? He's not going to get it, God. He is a self-indulgent brat. YOU said he did more to provoke You than any other king of Israel before him...GIVE UP!" I want to yell this because God does not give up. Infact, ...
Read more