Altar of Ascent
The air in the courtyard was thick, a tapestry of scents both sacred and mundane. It carried the dry, earthy smell of the desert beyond the linen curtains, mixed with the sharp, aromatic smoke of yesterday’s offerings that seemed to…
The Cleaving
The air in Memphis hung thick, a wool blanket soaked in the Nile’s damp breath. It was the kind of heat that made thought difficult, a heavy stillness broken only by the drone of flies. The previous plagues—blood, frogs, lice—had…
Stolen Blessing, Broken Bond
The tent smelled of old wool, of dust, of the slow, persistent scent of sickness. Isaac lay on his bed, the fine weave of the goat-hair fabric beneath him grown familiar through weeks of stillness. His world had narrowed to…
The First and Last on Patmos
The salt air of Patmos was a constant companion. It clung to the linen of my robe, a thin, rough fabric worn smooth at the elbows from hours spent writing, praying, waiting. The island was a jagged stone thrown into…
The Builder and the House
The lamplight in the back room of the house in Ephesus was low, the air thick with the scent of pressed olives and the sweat of a day’s labor. Gaius, his voice a dry rustle of parchment and weariness, shifted…
Paul’s Prison Epistle
The air in the prefect’s quarters was thick, a stale mixture of dust, old incense, and the underlying tang of damp stone. Paul shifted on the thin pallet, the coarse wool of his tunic scratching against the fetters on his…
The Desert in Corinth
The parchment felt rough under his fingers, a stark contrast to the polished rhetoric that usually filled the air of the gathering. It was Stephanas, they said, who had carried it from Ephesus, his knuckles white around the scroll case…
The Four-Day Tomb
The road to Bethany was dust and desperation. It was a two-day journey from where they’d been, across the Jordan, and with every sluggish step, Thomas felt the knot in his stomach tighten. Jesus walked ahead, his pace infuriatingly deliberate….
The Voice in the Wilderness
The dust of the Roman road, fine as ground chalk, hung in the air long after the caravan had passed. It settled on the dry thorns and the brittle grass of the wilderness east of the Jordan, a land of…
Defiled Hearts, Crumbs of Faith
The sun, a pale white coin in a bleached sky, burned over the dusty road to Gennesaret. It was the kind of heat that made the air over the stones shimmer and stole the breath from your lungs. Jesus walked…