22 Family Reunion

PELLA WAS PERCHED ATOP A HILL. To the casual observer, it seemed a city on the make, a city where one building after another was being erected. But the character of a city was not evident merely from its buildings. As Jesus had once said, “A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.” But Miryam, Martha, and Joanna were not seeking the city itself—they sought residents of that city whose real citizenship and governing center was elsewhere, in heaven.

Their journey had dragged on. As Joanna, Miryam, and Martha trudged along the final stretch to Pella, each hill seemed to be followed by another. It was the seventh day after the fall of the temple in Jerusalem, and the three women were feeling the physical toll of their journey, as well as the emotional strain of their uncertainty about the future. There were Jesus followers already in Pella—this they knew. But would they know any of them? They expected to be received in hospitality, and yet they had agreed among themselves that they did not want to be an additional burden to anyone.

Still, it felt good to be coming to the end of the journey. Their feet cried out for relief from the road, and their shoulders were sore from carrying their baggage, meager as it was.

Each was lost in her own thoughts—even Martha, who was rarely silent. As they came to a fork in the road, they could hear voices on the plateau above, giving them new energy.

Martha was the first to reach the top of the hill. Spotting the spring, she went there directly. She was parched. “Living water!” she cried.

All three women converged on the spring. It was busy with townspeople, each waiting their turn to fill their jars. The women sat and waited, happy for a moment’s rest.

Joanna, who had closed her eyes for a moment, suddenly stirred and opened them. She had heard a familiar voice from the bustle at the spring. Guided by long-dormant memory, she searched from face to face. Suddenly her gaze rested on an old woman, only a few feet away, whose back was partly turned. Joanna felt a shiver of joy run through her body.

“Miryam?” she said.

The woman turned and looked at Joanna. Her eyes widened, and for a moment the two women held each other’s gaze, unable to speak.

Then Miryam rushed to meet Joanna, and Joanna stood up, just in time for Miryam’s embrace. Quietly, Miryam spoke, “I haven’t seen you in nearly forty years, since you and your new husband went off with Saul of Tarsus. Forty years—and yet in some ways it seems like yesterday when we both saw the Risen One!”

Martha and the other Miryam watched with smiles and tearful eyes at this reunion. God had answered their prayers that they would find someone they knew here who loved Jesus.

“Let me introduce you to two people you know a little and should remember—this is Miryam and Martha of Bethany. They’ve traveled all the way with me. We have come in trust and hope that the prophecy that this is where the Lord wanted us to come was true. And now we know it is! He has met us here, at this spring, in you!”

“Oh my—is that really you, Miryam and Martha? I haven’t seen either of you since Jesus last appeared to us in Jerusalem. After that I returned to Galilee—he had said he would go before us into Galilee. You must have stayed in Jerusalem for Pentecost?”

“Yes, we did. It was such an amazing time, when the Spirit fell on those of us gathered in the upper room. I will never forget those days! But I am so glad to see you again now.” Martha dabbed at her eyes.

So delighted were the women to have found each other that they had forgotten where they were. A Greek woman interrupted them to ask whether they could step aside to allow her access to the water.

“Sorry, sorry, these are friends I have not seen in many a year. You go ahead, and we will fill these last jars when you are done.”

“After we have had a good long drink, we can help you carry them back to your house,” offered Joanna.

As the women each took a jar, put it on their heads, and headed up the path to Miryam’s place, Miryam of Bethany quietly said to her sister, “You see, it is true, G-d works all things together for good for those who love him. Worrying doesn’t help or change a thing.”

“Amen to that,” said the other three women, almost in unison, and their laughter bubbled up like water from the spring.