Altar of Equal Offerings
The Tabernacle stood finished, a whisper of ordered beauty in the stark embrace of the wilderness. The smell of acacia wood, finely ground flour, and the sharp, clean scent of anointing oil hung in the air, a new perfume for…
Tribe by Tribe, God Draws Near
The work was done. The Tabernacle, that tent of meeting, that strange and glorious echo of heaven’s own architecture, stood complete in the heart of the camp. The cloud had settled upon it, a silent, brooding presence that made the…
Jacob’s Ladder at Bethel
The land was not kind. Jacob felt its refusal in the soles of his feet, a persistent ache that travelled up his legs and settled into the small of his back. Each step away from Beersheba was a step into…
The Ephesus Reminder
The messenger, Tychicus, found the air of Ephesus difficult to breathe. It wasn’t the heat, though the late afternoon sun pressed down on the crowded streets like a flat, bronze hand. It wasn’t the thick, greasy smoke from the countless…
The Scribe’s Sharp Rest
The lamplight was the worst part. It pooled in uncertain yellow circles on the parchment, making the black ink swim before his eyes. Justus shifted on the hard stool, his back a single knot of pain. Around him, the scriptorium…
The Mind of Christ in Philippi
The oil lamp guttered, casting long, nervous shadows across the low ceiling of Syntyche’s house. A chill, damp from the Macedonian evening, seeped through the stone walls. Around a rough-hewn table, a handful of faces were illuminated in the flickering…
The Scarf and the Supper
The air in Corinth always carried a scent of salt and commerce, a thick blanket that settled over the city even before the sun grew hot. In the house of Gaius, where the church gathered, the scent mingled with the…
The Temptation and the Rejection
The air in the wilderness was a coarse thing, dry and thin, carrying the scent of dust and heated stone. It had been forty days since the voice at the Jordan River, since the affirmation that had shaken the heavens….
The Rock and the Road
The road north had been long, and the dust of it clung to everything—to their sandals, to the hems of their cloaks, to the back of the throat. It wasn’t the dust of Judea, dry and golden, but a grey,…
The Unmeasured City
The air in the courtyard was still thick with the dust of returning exiles. Zechariah felt it grit between his teeth, a constant reminder of the long road from Babylon and the longer road still ahead. The walls of Jerusalem…