Category Archives: Steel Chronicles
The Widow
Here is the sixth entry from my upcoming booklet, “Our Darkness, His Light”.
THE WIDOW
Luke 23:27-30
With a harsh, cruel motion of her hand, Ruth wiped the white paste across her face. She looked in the glass that mirrored her features. She adjusted the white paint on her face so that no skin showed. Ruth’s face looked lifeless. With another sudden movement, she pasted black across her lips. Her hands snaked into the pot before her and brought out ashes that she sprinkled in her hair. Ruth whirled in the darkness of her room and grabbed a black cloak from the wooden peg by the door. She settled it around her shoulders. Next, came a black shawl draped over her head. Ruth glanced in the glass once more and approved of the harsh, ghostly figure that stood before her. It looked dead.
“I’ll show them. They think that they are the best. They think that they can push me out because I’m a lonely widow. I can do as well as the rest of them. Just wait until they hear me, the old biddies.”
Ruth whirled in the shadows of her room and her white hand snaked out to open the doorway. Bright sunlight gushed in from the outside and she squinted in the light. She cast the black shawl over her face and stepped out into the dusty, hot streets of Jerusalem.
The Basin
This is the fifth entry from my upcoming booklet, “Our Darkness, His Light”.
THE BASIN
Matthew 27:24
Miriam awoke from a restless sleep to the voice of her mother calling. She quickly arose from the small pallet in the corner of the one-roomed hovel that she called home. Across the dim room she saw her mother’s figure huddled in the far corner on her own pallet. Early morning sunlight streamed through the slats of the wooden window and one pale beam cast its rays across her mother’s hair.
Miriam hurried across the room and knelt beside her mother. Her mother lay on her side, her face turned away from the center of the room. Miriam reached out to touch her face.
“Mother, you’re hot.” Her tiny voice echoed in the room. Her mother lay back and Miriam saw the beads of sweat that covered her face. She saw the stains where the sweat had soaked through the armpits.
“Miriam.” Her mother’s voice was weak. “I am ill. It is the fever. You must go and work for us today.”
The Rope
This is the fourth entry from my upcoming booklet “Our Darkness, His Light”.
THE ROPE
Matthew 27:5
Samuel looked up from counting his money as the two men entered his shop. They were dressed in simple robes, their faces covered with black cloth, only their eyes visible. He quickly rolled the denarii he had been counting into a small piece of cloth and tucked it into the merchandise laying before him on his table.
The men had not come to the shop to purchase anything. They ignored the baskets, the ropes, the various artifacts that hung from nails around his small shop and walked straight across the floor to the table.
“It’s time to pay up, Samuel.” One of the men said as he slammed his fist down on the table. Various bits of merchandise clattered together from the sudden violence of the man’s blow. Samuel leaned back on his stool, his heart picking up its pace. He was having trouble breathing. He was getting too old for this nonsense.
“You tell your master that I will pay him when I have the money. I know that I own him a great deal, but I can only pay so much at a time.”
The Coin
The third entry from my upcoming booklet “Our Darkness, His Light”. Whatever happened to the rich young ruler who went away sorrowful after Jesus told him to sell everything and give it all to the poor. This is what may have happened.
THE COIN
Luke 18:22
Sunlight scattered off the coins as Abram let the golden disks cascade from one hand to the other. Normally, the sensation brought him joy. But, since his encounter with Jesus of Nazareth, his desire for the feel of the coins had diminished.
“Give it all away?” He muttered, dropping all but one of the coins in his tunic. “The man is insane! I can’t give it all away!”
He shook his head as he walked along the rows of beggars inside the temple, his eyes roving over the groveling figures. He came to the spot closest to the Pool of Siloam. The bent and deformed figure crouching in the dust was a stranger.
“Where is Simeon?”
Blinded By the Light
Another chapter in my upcoming booklet, “Our Darkness, His Light”. See yesterday’s post for more information on this upcoming booklet. Today, we meet the young man healed of his blindness by Jesus.
BLINDED BY THE LIGHT
Based on John 9
“Can you stand here before the High Court of God and expect us to believe you? Do not lie to Caiaphus, the high priest.” Caiaphus spat the words at him.
Simeon was still amazed by the color red. He saw it now in the old priest’s cheeks. They glowed with anger. Simeon resisted the urge to reach out his hands to touch those hot spots, to feel the heat he had never seen before this day.
“We don’t believe you, boy!” The great, hulking figure backed away slowly, turning to survey a group of men dressed in black and white. Black and white. Black Simeon understood. That was all he had “seen” his entire life. White was new. It didn’t seem to fit these men and their coarse, cruel words.
Our Darkness, His Light
Today, I want to share with you the first chapter of a short book I hope to soon release through Amazon. The booklet tells the story of people who were present the last week of Jesus’ life. It tells stories from their point of view. And, while I have taken dramatic liberty with the stories, they are based on the real events of the Passion Week. Here, in Chapter 1 we see the Triumphant Entry on “Palm Sunday” from the viewpoint of someone who, I believe, was watching Jesus from the start of His ministry.
BY DARKNESS BOUND
Matthew 21:8-11
“It is dark in here.” The man’s voice was shaky with fear. Good!
Saul pushed the tiny clay lamp across his wooden table toward the man. The shadows flickered and moved across the man’s bearded face. “I prefer the darkness, Benjamin.” He whispered.
Sweat ran from beneath the cloth on Benjamin’s head and he licked his lips. “I followed the man like you asked me to.”
Saul leaned into the flickering lamp light. “And, where did he go?”
“To the temple. He met with the High Council.”
A Tribute to Leonard Nimoy
Sometime in the fall of my senior year in high school, I channeled Doctor Leonard “Bones” McCoy. In 1972, Star Trek had been off the air for three years. But, thanks to syndication, it was showing in the afternoons on my local television station. And, there was a brand new Star Trek cartoon on Saturday mornings.
When I first started watching Star Trek in September, 1966 I was 11 years old. I know. I’m getting up there. But, when I reach the age of 80, I’ll officially call myself a “senior adult”. And, then, maybe not. William Shatner is still going strong and he’ll be 84 this month. And, his best friend, Leonard Nimoy — well more on that later.
At the age of 11, I could not understand the nuanced messages hidden in the Star Trek story lines. I totally did not get the significance of the first televised interracial kiss between Captain Kirk and Lieutenant Uhura. But, by the time I was 17 and a senior in high school, I got it! Watching the original series as an older teenager was like watching an entirely new show!
Thanks for the prayers!
As of last night, Mark Sutton underwent quadruple bypass surgery yesterday morning and was standing at the bedside in ICU talking on the phone with his wife, Donna. Hope today goes well. They thank all of your for the prayers!
Urgent Prayer Request!
Many of you are aware I have co-authored a book on depression with my retired pastor, Mark Sutton. Mark just contacted me and he will be undergoing quintuple heart bypass surgery tomorrow at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida. Please pray!
Bruce Hennigan 
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