11 Slave's Gift

 On the way to Bethlehem, Hathach thought, “Me—a foreigner—and Yahweh still chose to deal with me! No matter what others say, This Yahweh will be MY KING!” He felt in his clothes for the sack carrying the gold the merchants had given him for the “diamonds” he had been able to gather.

Melzar was beside himself with happiness. “But I never dreamed that I would see a great God get a lowly eunuch his mother’s smell—how gentle Yahweh is!”

Beorn felt he had failed the group. He hadn’t gotten them to Bethlehem before dark. But perhaps the innkeepers wouldn’t be too cross about travelers wanting to stop in at night.

As the camel caravan plodded over the sand dunes, and they saw the town of Bethlehem…the King Star shone brightly in the sky again.

It was Melzar--whose mother had given a love for astrology--who saw it first. “Beorn, the Star! The Star!”

And Hathach, knew that stars, which were actually far, far away, had to be guided by a powerful God in the Heavens for one to look to the human eye like a bright light moved across the night sky then stopped over one house.

“Quick, Beorn,” he said; “what were you reading in the sacred writings when you saw the King Star from your window in Babylon?”

“I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not near; there shall come a Star out of Jacob” (Num.24:17)

“It is your God Yahweh Who has sent us His Messiah;” Hathach said. And while his mouth kept moving, his eyes never once left the bright spot in the sky.  “And as a sign for us mortals, He has sent a Star.”

In one smooth move, he took out a big sack carrying what the merchants had given him. “Yahweh is MY KING; and HE WILL HAVE ALL MY GOLD.” To an open-mouthed Beorn, brief stories were told of how Hathach gathered gems in the desert then sold them in Jerusalem.

“And Yahweh is MY KING!” Melzar shouted, not to be undone. And, as if throwing the words out real hard, laughing and crying at the same time, he said, “and HE WILL HAVE ALL MY FRANKINCENSE!”

No matter what his friends said, Melzar would not be talked out of it. The God of the Universe Who loved, thought of, and even spoke of eunuchs in the sacred writings--why, Melzar couldn’t give Him anything less.

The star led the foreigner, eunuch, slave-turned-prince to the very house where their greatest hopes lived, smiling at Mary and Joseph as they played with Him.

The wise men knocked at the home, hardly daring to believe they had found the King, then they went in to see Him.

“Oh Mother! I have seen him! I have seen him!” Beorn cried out, but then he began to really cry. He felt Hathach and Meltzar had gifts for the King but he did not; he had nothing to give, there had been no time for him to get anything. Then he noticed a lump in his things.

The time after he had saved that officer’s girl, the mother had given him a small bottle, told him to keep it and sell it only when he really needed money. It would bring in much, she had said. Beorn had forgotten about it until now. What was it? He reached for it, held it up to the light.

Hathach, our scientist-mathematician, saw the shape of the container Beorn had picked up and let out a gasp.

“Beorn!...Where did you get that? You have a vial of …MYRRH!”

    Myrrh. When a tree is wounded, it “bleeds” a resin which is then used to make the base of many medicines. For a man who’s been wounded but wants to give every bit of his soul to Yahweh yet desperately needs His healing and freeing, could there have been a better gift to offer? (Myrrh. Expensive medicine, and Hathach may’ve known, as the Chinese do, myrrh can purge stagnant blood from the uterus so is ideal to give new mothers.)

“What is that you have in your hand…”　(Ex.4:2) Beorn said under his breath.

“What?” Hathach asked. “I can’t hear you.”

“Nothing. It’s just that when we come before Yahweh and tell him we can’t do something great, He often says, ‘I don’t want you to do something great; just give me what you have in your hand.’ That’s what He said to a prophet called Moses.””

“So, YAHWEH IS MY KING too, and I WILL GIVE HIM WHAT IS IN MY HAND: MYRRH!”

    Yahweh had given Beorn the gift he was to give back to Him...and Beorn didn’t even know it! 

10 Eunuch's Gift

 After months of desert travel, starting early was easy now for Melzar. As a matter of fact, he was far ahead of himself today, so… he asked Beorn, also up early, for a special favor. Beorn smiled and got out the sacred writings. Sitting down on the ground, they looked again at the section read at the watering hole:

Neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree.” (Isa. 56:3)

Melzar read those words over and over. Here was something in the sacred writings written for eunuchs! Yahweh really saw him? How long did they spend staring at that one sentence?

Beorn never thought he was a proud person until this moment. But he had never been happy and amazed that there was one sentence in the sacred writings written to him! And it wasn’t just Melzar. Hathach had the same kind of reaction. Seeing Yahweh spoke to the foreigner…that had shocked him. Beorn never felt shocked Yahweh thought of him. A long time ago, Beorn’s mother said the more pride a person has, the more he can be hurt. I have felt much hurt, Beorn reasoned; could it be because—he had not really seen his own heart before?

Hathach’s voice broke in on his thoughts: “I don’t want to be rude, but we need to get going. What do the sacred writings say about how to go on, Beorn?” The star they had been following had disappeared. The wise men had no choice but to go to the castle and ask. But Melzar….

When Beorn looked at him, Melzar shrugged, nodded and mounted his camel. Beorn smiled and mounted his camel too. “It seems we are going to the castle.”

  *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *  *   *   *  

They probably looked a little strange. Three Bedoins: 20, 40, 60 yrs. old (one of them black), on backs of camels…one animal looking like a mountain lion strung to the saddle of the third camel. (Although Tassie usually ran free, Beorn thought the caracal should look kept on the end of a rope, or the city people would be more scared of it. Melzar talked to Tassie, who understood.)

Melzar wanted to cry when he saw Tassie. How did she do it? When they put a rope around her neck, she didn’t put up a fight. In Babylon, Melzar, a slave, wanted to look like an equal when walking with his master; yet Tassie, who knew nothing but respect and freedom, was willing to look like a humbled, captured animal of the wild.

When they got to the castle, while Beorn and Hathach went inside, Melzar decided he would stay with the camels and with Tassie. Mostly, it was because he knew the kids in the street would want to see the animals. Melzar loved simple kids and furry friends.

“Where is he that is born King of the Jews?” Beorn and Hathach got down to business as soon as they were inside the castle. They told King Herod they saw “the King Star” in Babylon and came to worship him. Their study of astronomy and astrology showed a king was to be born in an area called Judea, but can the men of Herod’s hall tell them more?

Herod called his chief priests and scribes and demanded this information. Maybe Beorn knew as much of the sacred writings as some of the scribes King Herod called that day. But seeing his dark skin, they felt they knew more and spoke down to him. Beorn knew exactly what they were thinking; it was nothing new to him. But, they were agreed: writings of the prophets showed the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2).

“Hathach, tell Melzar to get ready to go to Bethlehem.” Beorn said, waving him towards the camels. And he was going to say a quick, courteous thank-you before leaving, but Herod was not looking at Beorn, but hurrying away toward the exotic caravan, curious to see how foreigners travel.

  “Mean Old Herod’s coming—run!” yelled the children playing with the animals, and they scattered. Herod was known and feared for his unfeeling ways. Even the camels, who rarely respond to others, twitched nervously under Herod’s shifty gaze.

  Only Tassie responded differently. She could sense that under the hard exterior was a man who had many health problems and needed a friend. She came up to the men, and of course, Herod’s initial response was to defend himself from a lion. It’s harmless, our pet, Hathach assured him. Well, it wasn’t just Hathach’s words that persuaded Herod.

Tassie walked past Hathach, and just then, Melzar and Beorn returned to the group to see her nuzzling up against Herod!

  “She…likes you Sir! Look at her!” Despite the long rope tied around her neck, she looked utterly content and began to purr in front of Herod, lay down asking for her belly to be scratched. Herod’s hardened face began to look like a marshmallow, and was there a faint glimmer in the eyes? Some of the youngest children came out of the shadows.

  “Look," Herod called, showing both hands full of ceremonial incense sticks; "I’ll trade all this for the cat.” Who’s the owner, he wanted to know. Beorn saw the temple priests’ dismay when Herod spoke. It was apparent the bundles were not Herod’s to give away; he just happened to have them to authorize their use at the temple!

  But Beorn had heard about Herod. If he wanted something, he killed the owner and took what he wanted. The priests were careful to smile and nod approval when Herod glanced at them, but when he looked away, their faces changed.

  Ooh. Herod really wanted Tassie.

  Beorn looked over at Melzar and spoke as clearly as he could. “Frankincense is a very, very good offer, Naboth. Take it. You’ll never get a better deal.” Beorn was sweating on the inside, praying that Yahweh would help Melzar remember the story Beorn read from the sacred writings the other day, where a man named Naboth was killed for a vineyard the king wanted.

  Melzar opened his mouth to say something, but as he had done so often before, closed it, and gave the slightest nod before turning to the king. “I am the owner of the cat. Yes, the incense will do for the trade, with conditions.”

  “Conditions? You can’t give King Herod ‘conditions’!” Beorn thought, and froze. He knew Melzar was a dead man.

  But Melzar was watching Tassie play with Herod, and he was saying to the king:

  “Condition number one: play with Tassie every day, and when the children come to play, can you please let them play with her?

  Two: please never use Tassie as a work animal or have her enchained, enclosed, or whipped.

  Three: She clearly loves you, sir. Please promise to love and care for her, and she will be your friend for life. Those are the three conditions I would ask of you, sir.”

  Herod did not order his hooded men to drag Melzar away; he was in a jovial mood and seemed to answer everything Melzar said with, “Oh, of course!” Was Herod starting to change? He had a servant take all the sticks of Frankincense to Melzar, where he put them in Teddy’s shoulder harnesses.

All was ready. Herod pulled Beorn aside with a message for the visitors from the East: “Go to Bethlehem and search diligently for the young child, and when you have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also.”

“Thank you for your precious time. It is our wish to find him also. We shall seek him earnestly.” Beorn bowed as the king returned to the castle, today with a large cat companion by his side.

  Beorn looked down the street where some oriental merchants were clip-clopping by. Hathach left their side and joined his two companions. Beorn didn’t know Hathach sold his Arabian Diamonds to them and came back loaded with gold. They had no time to lose. Beorn knew they had to get to Bethlehem, find the Christ, and get lodging by the time it got dark. He made one more stop at the temple to ask for more detailed directions, and the trio started off on their way.

  When they were far enough away from the city, Beorn looked over at Melzar and said, “That smell you remember your mother by? I think I know what it was. Beorn took a small stick, lit it, and took a whiff. “Is this it?” he asked, holding the stick out to Melzar.

  Melzar answered, “Yes!” by almost falling off his camel.

  “That,” Beorn said, “is Frankincense. Before we left Jerusalem today, I stopped by the temple to pay the priests for the Frankincense I knew Herod took from them, and they gave me this sample stick.

“You bought the Frankincense? Then all this is not mine, but yours!” Melzar said, and was about to give the incense Herod had given him to Beorn.

“No, no, no;” Beorn objected; “It was Tassie Herod wanted, so the trade was made with you. I just paid for the apology to the priests.” Melzar didn’t know what to think.

Beorn went on. “You see, my mother worked cleaning temples, and smell from Frankincense got into her clothes. I remember thinking of it as “mother’s smell”. When you told me you remembered your mother’s smell, I thought maybe it was the same thing.

 

Would Yahweh speak to eunuchs? He would—and had. Letting go of Tassie had nearly broken his heart, but through it, Yahweh had been leading him to the fragrance of yesteryear’s comfort, joy, love, security—the greatest delight his heart had ever known. 

9 Don't Know Why

 “Tomorrow we’ll be there. Can you believe it?” Beorn said, looking up at the stars the way he often did.

“I still don’t see why we have to go to the castle and ask directions,” Melzar complained; “why can’t we keep following the star?” He didn’t exactly like people.

“You want to tell him Hathach, or shall I?” Beorn said, still looking into the night sky.

“You do, Beorn; I’ve tried quite a few times, but he doesn’t seem to understand when I tell him. Maybe he’ll listen to you.”

“Oh…kay…” It looked like Beorn closed his eyes for a little bit. But when he spoke, it seemed in a completely different tone of voice.

“People can do the craziest things, don’t you think?”

“Wha-?” Melzar thought he was going to tell him about why they were going to the castle. But that’s okay. If Beorn wanted to tell a story, Melzar wanted to hear it. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, you get real proud people together and find out they really can’t do the simplest things because of this stupid thing called “pride”! Sometimes, a simpleton, a fool can do more just because one ‘grand’ person isn’t willing to swallow his pride.”

“What do you mean?” Melzar asked, and even Tassie’s eyebrows seemed curled.

“Well,” again Beorn chuckled with the memory, like the time I carried that Babylonian officer’s daughter on my shoulder through the cesspool. “Okay, that’s an extreme example. But there are lots of things people won’t do for pride…and will let someone else do it. That wasn’t hard work, didn’t require any training or anything, but I GOT TO BECOME A PRINCE FOR IT! Some people won’t ask directions out of pride.”

“If it’ll look like I’m being proud for not wanting to go to the castle tomorrow to ask for directions, Beorn—and that’s not it at all—we can go, ok?”

“I never once thought you had that problem, Melzar, my friend.” Beorn continued, looking up at the sky as if there had been no interruption; “but people like that just do not know when to stop.”

Almost as if to himself, he added: “—but maybe it was conscience; they couldn’t help it?”

Then: “When they realized they had to reward me for a simple thing like walking through a few hundred feet of muck…well, they took it out on me by separating me from my mother, calling me “Prince,” and sending me to the Wilderness of Sarafi, calling it a “promotion” that I was supposed to thank them for thinking of and giving me.”

At this, Beorn began to cry. Loudly, unashamedly, bitterly. “Mother told me the sacred writings tell us ‘the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it?’ I see the anger of my own heart and don’t know what to do with it. Mother says Yahweh will send Messiah who will take care of all this one day.”

Melzar knew pain. His experiences had been such it would be an understatement to say he found it difficult to talk about them. When he tried, he would begin to tremble, sometimes have difficulty breathing. So when he saw Beorn’s tears, he could not help but go over and try to comfort him any way he could.

Tassie somehow felt the same thing, and cuddled and snuggled, somehow trying to help this one he knew was in distress…try to imagine a huge mountain lion acting like a baby kitten purring in your face. Beorn couldn’t help smiling in spite of himself. Oh Tassie.

“Melzar,…Melzar, I don’t often hear you talk about your mother…the one who gave you the love for astrology…is that all you remember about her?...Of course, you don’t have to say any more than you want…”

Hathach wanted to hear too. Melzar rarely spoke about his family. As soon as he had been born, his father had been taken away and made the king’s eunuch, so he never knew his father. Like Arla and Beorn, it was a slave-and-son unit, but it hurt Melzar too much to talk about it; so he never did. At first, Hathach thought it was something he needed to talk about and tried to make him do so, but then he saw the almost suffocating effect it had on him, and changed his mind. The stories of shame the eunuch must endure; and stories of service the eunuch must render—Hathach heard these stories, and they were heartbreaking,

   Melzar, for some reason, could not remember details about his mother but remembered two things: as previously stated, the teachings of astrology. Somehow, Melzar remembered her voice talking about the astrological signs and the beauty of their meanings in our lives. The only other thing about his mother that Melzar could remember was, for some reason, her smell. She smelled pretty. Call this a tender mercy of God that a child could not remember his father’s aloofness but he could remember his mother’s smell!

To Melzar’s mind, that fragrance and a mother’s love were the same.

Melzar’s mother had been a housekeeper in the temple grounds where there was expensive incense burning all day, and this fragrance was what was in her clothes.

8 Foreigner's Gift

 The last watering-hole of the journey, Beorn shuffled over to his two Babylonian friends, and although one was twenty years younger than he and the other twenty years older, he strangely felt he was addressing two brothers.

“I never dreamed I would hear myself say this,” Beorn said, and almost expected his own voice to sound awkward, but was surprised at how smoothly it came out, “but would you read this with me?”

Beorn had read from the sacred writings himself before. Most watering holes he did. He had spoken of them before. Many times. But Hathach and Melzar…would not laugh at anything in those writings, they would not treat them lightly; and something in Beorn told him Yahweh Himself said yes, let them have a look. This was the first time he had asked anyone to read along with him from the sacred writings.

“The prophets;’ sacred writings your mother let you keep? Oh, I would be so honored, Beorn! But I am just a eunuch. Would it not offend the great prophets to have a eunuch listen to their words?”

“And I, Beorn—I am a foreigner. I respect, have high regard for this Yahweh God, but would there not be great wrath if I, a pagan, tried to read the writings of chosen holy men of your faith?”

Instead of having the writings belittled, Melzar and Hathach had both expressed high regard for the words of Yahweh! Beorn felt a lump of joy building in his chest and throat, saying, “Something tells me Yahweh Who sees has heard and is not angry but pleased. Come--you must read with me today:”

Beorn explained to Melzar Isa. 56:3 said the eunuch didn’t have to think of himself as a dry tree; it also said to Hathach: even a foreigner could join himself to the LORD—they could together go in to Yahweh’s open arms to serve Him; He has promised to receive them and make His house a joyful house of prayer for all peoples! All this was clearly laid out in Isaiah 56:3-7, the portion Beorn was to read that day.

They once more read Isa. 56:3-7 then the verse following it:

“The Lord GOD, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, says, yet will I gather others to him, beside those who are gathered to him.” (Isa.56:8)

There, the three men bowed their heads, humbly joining their minds and wills, asking Yahweh to accept their all and to show them the rest of the way…to their Hope, His promised Messiah. They did not understand it all, could only follow Him Who did. Would He not prove Himself to them?

Leaving that watering hole, Hathach asked Beorn for a special favor. He wanted to read that portion of the sacred writings they had read together—about the foreigner that joins himself to the Lord and about God gathering: this Yahweh God accepted him! He didn’t reject him as pagan but chose him…as Hathach himself had picked up those shining rocks off the desert floor!

By the time the wise men made camp that night, he had made up his mind: whatever gold those stones were worth, he would give no less to the One sent by this Yahweh God Who freely accepted this foreigner Hathach.

(The rocks Hathach found are called “Al-Qaysumah Diamonds”, of course not the same as diamonds mined from the center of the earth, actually semi-precious stones similar to Amethysts and Smokey Topaz, Citrine. But they’re still valuable so would be worth plenty to merchants passing through. Hathach’s research had told him the stones were on the desert floor, but his study did not tell him Al Qaysumah, where the quartz are most plentiful, is on the other side of the desert. It seems Yahweh stepped in and had sandstorms carry them his way.) 

7 Secrets at Watering Holes

 If you asked these men from Babylon about their journey out west, they probably would tell you about things that happened at several watering holes.

One Watering Hole: “Hathach’s Star”

Beorn had sensed in many different ways there was more to Hathach than met the eye. It was at these short rest stops Beorn was able to get to know Hathach a little better. He had told them that his ancestor had been a servant for the king of Shushan, and that he had heard about the protection of the Jews then.

However, it came out in one of the stops at the watering holes that that king’s wife, was named Esther—they had all known this—what they had not known was that her name meant “Star”. And she had been told, as Beorn and his family had been told, that Yahweh God would one day save His own people. His sign would be a star. And she was given that name at birth. Hathach was a mathematician, a scientist. Logic told him this had nothing to do with him.

Yet, there had been something inside him that said that there was one in a million chance that this Yahweh God really did exist; and perhaps He had sent a star as a sign; and for some reason, he let Hathach know about it so that they could be sent out on this journey? Was that not a possibility? At one watering hole, Hathach told his friends he had not been able to get away from these thoughts, and they had pushed him out on this journey. (You can talk freely about things at watering holes you wouldn’t dare talk about anywhere else.)

Melzar jumped in. “You mean when I mentioned Astrological signs pointed to a great King being born in Judea, you felt in your heart it was true?!” Tassie snuggled down quickly at Melzar’s side as if to say “let’s not get all excited. We’re in this together.”

“I had no way of proving it, Melzar.”

“But you felt it was true?” Tassie rubbed her face against his, saying, “I believe you; whatever it is.”

Beorn broke in. “That is why we must see the King with our own eyes. That will take care of everything.”

“My, those camels are fast. 15 minutes, and you’d think they drank up a tenth of the water in the world.”

Another Watering Hole: “Diamonds” & Stew

When it looked like it was the journey’s end and the trio could’ve turned into Jerusalem, Beorn looked at his two friends and asked, almost like a little boy, “A big favor…for me? It won’t do anything to help this trip…but I just want to see the wilderness where I grew up. Could we make a detour south for a week? No, even three days, two?”

Hathach and Melzar looked at each other and smiled.

They were this far from Babylon. If Beorn wanted to see his old backyard—and he’d gotten them through…how many sandstorms and terrible scrapes already?—they would by no means limit his time!

“Beorn, a week, two weeks, take all the time you want!”

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Beorn almost cried, he was so happy. Tassie shook her tassels, and jumped over to Beorn’s side. “Thank you, Tassie!”

That desert was just as hot as Beorn remembered it. Hathach had studied about “Arabian Diamonds” on the desert floor that can be seen best at this time of day. There! And there! He saw them sparkling, glittering in the sun. Hathach gathered these rocks and put them in a small sack, amazed that something so beautiful could be just lying here for the taking.

   Animal-lover Melzar, almost one with Teddy after his long ride from the east, had been on the hills of the place and delighted with the wildlife he found there. Tassie came flying to his side though, when he heard Melzar scream at the 2-foot-long lizard in the shadow.

Beorn came running; but threw his head back and laughed when he saw what Melzar had seen, then quickly apologized for making light of something that must’ve been frightening. Apparently, dhub stew is not an uncommon nomadic dish, which they had for supper.

“Chicken Stew…pretty good….you made this, Beorn?” Hathach said at supper. Beorn winked at Melzar.

“Yes, I made it” was all he said.

      At bedtime, Hathach was told about the nomad “chicken” stew…what it had probably looked like before it had become stew. It was probably knowing that he had gathered a sackful of “Arabian Diamonds” that kept Hathach from getting in a bad mood, even when he found out about the giant lizard he’d been tricked into eating. 

6 Melzar Tames Tassie

 Desert travel had become almost routine for the three from Babylon. No matter how hot it got during the day, they knew to stay covered up—their skin needed protection from the burning sun. And by midday—almost every day--the pounding heat and thirst would have them thinking they would die before they reached the next watering hole. But wasn’t that how it always felt?

After a while, the trio actually began expecting the feeling of doom between the springs…so when it came, it was no surprise. As Melzar put it, “It was like the sandstorm came, but I had my hood on and was ready.” Then it wasn’t so bad.

The accidents that are the hardest are the ones that come when you aren’t expecting them.

Melzar and the camels hadn’t expected a midnight visitor. He had been out having a little visit with his four-footed friend as he sometimes did after Beorn and Hathach started snoring. Melzar felt safe then to have short visits before crawling back to his place of sleep again. Teddy would never tell on him.

One night, while Melzar was leaning his back against his tan buddy, he noticed the camel started snarling and baring his teeth.

“Why, what’s wrong? Did I say something…to upset you?” Melzar looked where Teddy was glaring.

He froze. What was it?!

Teddy scrambled to his feet and stomped his hooves, rousing the other two camels from their slumber. Melzar, seeing everything come to life, rushed back to his bedroll and pretended to be asleep. The creature Melzar had seen slipped into the bushes.

Teddy and the other two camels were howling—growling—necks rocking back and forth.. The other two camels had not seen the intruder, only Teddy had; they were just acting like two excitable camels stirred from deep sleep!

  Beorn and Hathach were awake by this time.

“What on earth…” Beorn rubbed his eyes.

“Melzar, I think it was your Teddy that started all this. Maybe a bad nightmare? Can you get him to go back to sleep? Until you do, I don’t think any of us will.”

“Right away, sir.” Melzar tried to calm him down. “He’s gone Teddy,” he whispered. “Whatever it was, he won’t bother us.”

“Cush.” Melzar got Teddy to sit down again and gave him a big hug. “It’s okay, Teddy. You were protecting me from that thing, weren’t you? You’re the best. Thank you. Now go to sleep. Shhh. Good night, Teddy.”

Whew. Close call. Melzar slipped into his bedding, and, tired, fell fast asleep.

He did not see Hathach had not gone back to sleep but had wanted to speak with him.

He looked at Melzar’s sleeping face and smiled at it. Melzar had become to him like a grandson. “I guess it can wait until morning…” Hathach said, and went back to sleep.

The next morning, Hathach said he wanted to take Melzar falcon-hunting.  Melzar was getting rather tired of the doing the same thing day in and day out, so this sounded like a nice change to simply packing up and heading to the next watering hole.

They had seen Saker falcons in Babylon too. Hathach knew a way to catch them by getting their talons tangled in wire; there was no killing; and not a single feather of the bird’s coat was moved out of place during the “hunt”.

“Are you going to tell me what really happened last night?” Hathach asked, as they picked up the bird they had caught; “I told Beorn we were coming out falcon-hunting but did not say when we would be back at camp.”

“Well…” Melzar looked down at the ground, thinking. Hathach would not believe him, for sure.

“You do not have to tell me,” Hathach said, smoothing the feathers of the falcon; “and we can take this bird to camp right now, if you like. No pressure, Melzar.”

Whew, Melzar thought. So the two went back to camp.

And Beorn thought the two men just went falcon-hunting in the morning, leaving Beorn at home. He didn’t suspect anything, about the night before, right? Really?

But Melzar couldn’t tell Hathach he saw a kitty as big as a lion with a worried look…with lips like it wanted to whistle, but eyebrows that went straight up…and had tassles on the tips of its pointy ears! No, no, no; they would lock him up and throw away the key.

But Teddy had seen him too…hadn’t he? Melzar almost wished the animal would come back again another night and show himself.

  *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *  

Almost, not really. But the caracal didn’t know that. The next night, after Hathach and Beorn were fast asleep, Melzar got up and tip toed over to his desert pal.

The same way he’d talked with Beorn that first night—Melzar lay back against Teddy’s side, looking up at the night sky. He loved it when it was so peaceful and quiet like this.

“All those stars line up to form Aries the ram”…Melzar stroked Teddy’s neck…”and that King star. I am so glad you’re here, Teddy,” he said softly, still stroking him, “and will take me all the way to Judea …” But Teddy’s ears didn’t have soft tufts on the ends of them like the ones Melzar was feeling! Slowly, Melzar turned his head.

He was looking into the face of a mountain lion, the “kitty cat with tassels” that came the night before. Melzar knew the worst thing he could do was to scream.

That moment, he remembered what Beorn had said about a shepherd boy named David who had come face to face with a huge cat too—except for him, it wasn’t a mountain lion; it was a real big lion, mange and all—what did Beorn say? David prayed for Yahweh God to help him, and he ended up killing that lion and protecting his sheep. That story came to Melzar’s mind in a flash.

Melzar didn’t want to kill the mountain lion, but he prayed to this Yahweh God right away. “Help”, he prayed; “please!” And the strangest calm came over him.

“We’re headed out west, Kitty. You wanna come too?” And he found himself stroking it again. The cat didn’t seem to know how to respond at first—he hadn’t been spoken to like that or pet so much before—but to Melzar’s surprise, after a while, it curled up at his feet and started purring. It’s like a kitten, he thought, only much bigger.

The sound woke Teddy—yes, he had been asleep the whole time—and it took Melzar some doing to calm him down. Of course, by this time, everyone was awake, and they had to be told about the caracal.

“He’s my new friend,” Melzar said defensively. I’m calling him Tassie (because of the tassled ears). Tassie squeezed himself against Melzar’s body with a worried look, asking for protection. (Well, Tassie’s “worried” face only looks that way because of the caracal’s darker hairs near the eyes.)

“It’s okay; nothing’s going to happen to you. Everyone’s afraid of you, that’s all. Show them that you don’t mean any harm, and they won’t do anything to you either.”

Although Teddy and Melzar always had that bond between animal and rider, the loyalty Tassie felt towards Melzar grew as well, and she was always looking to see what Melzar needed. Tassie never left Melzar’s side, and after awhile, Melzar himself couldn’t think of traveling without Tassie.

5 First-Name Basis

    But the rabbit in the pot came hopping out and sniffed at each of the three sleeping forms. When he came to Melzar’s face, the rabbit’s whiskers must’ve tickled a bit. Melzar muttered a “Stop that;” giggled; turned over…and fell off his perch.

“Ouch!”

Beorn was already up—“the rabbit” had disappeared—the human desert traveler was tying his things to his camel.

“Better wake Hathach. We need to get moving.”

“Right;” Melzar said, moving toward Hathach. He whispered, “Did you see the rabbit?”

“What rabbit?”

“Ra…never mind.”

Melzar and Hathach got on their camels and were moving, perhaps not quite as quickly as Beorn would’ve liked, but it had been, after all, only their first night. They would improve. That day, they made good time, wearing nomadic clothing—those veils—from the beginning. The only thing that slowed them down even a little was Hathach’s cries of: “Look! Look!”

    Desert wildlife. Actually, it was not for himself, but Melzar. Hathach knew Melzar loved animals. The beautiful spotted Persian deer he couldn’t not show Melzar. And over there, by the canyon. That adorable sand cat. Hathach knew it could be a ferocious animal, would not stay anybody’s pet! But he had to have Melzar see the kitty anyway. Melzar's reaction wasn't unlike his own when, on a midnight walk, his father had shown him a new constellation. 

They did not take time this day to kill and cook but chewed on cured meat Hathach had brought and munched on raisins. What took surprising little time was the watering of the camels, for the amount they drank. Because Beorn knew how to travel in the desert going from watering hole to watering hole, there was always enough. But my, the amount of water those camels could drink! But of course the group dared not move onto the next stop until the camels had drunk to their full.

The three would dismount, lead their animals to the water, and…it seemed the camels forgot for a few minutes about their loads, their journey, their masters. All they could think of was “drink”. While a camel is filling up on water like that, it is doubtful even a strong man could pull him away from the spring. Melzar, Hathach, Beorn never once had to worry about someone running off with one of their camels.

“Treat your camel well, and he will serve you well,” Beorn once said to the two men, while patting his tan friend on the side of the neck. “A righteous man regards the life of his animal, but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.’ (Prov.12:10)

“It says that in the sacred writings?” Melzar was surprised. “I thought those writings were about the Yahweh God and man, not about animals!”

“The way a man treats animals says a lot about how he feels about God,” Beorn explained; “Yes, it is in there. My mother said the first job man was given when Yahweh made him was to give names to the animals.

Yahweh said, Okay, anything you like: ‘Spot’ or ‘Mr. President’ or ‘Ling-Ling’ or whatever name you want.”

Hathach interrupted. “Wait. You don’t mean ‘give animals names’, like: ‘You’re an elephant’, ‘You’re a tiger’, ‘I’ll call you a horse’, ‘You’ll be called hippopotamus’, etc…? You mean ‘name’, name?”

Beorn looked back at him. “All right. The next person you see walking his pet, Ask its name, and it’s close to 100% sure the owner will not say, ‘I just call him “dog” or say “come here, cat”.’ I think he will call him by a ‘name’ name. And when Yahweh looks at me, He doesn’t just love ‘that human being’, but He loves me, Beorn.”

People who can be cruel to animals show they have a cold relationship with God too. They don’t realize they can be on a first-name basis with Him.”

“First-name basis?”

“To tell you the truth, I’m not real clear on this. I wish my mother were here to tell you. She said it has to do with the Star leading us to Israel. Yahweh will send us special Help to be able to understand all truth. Including this first-name thing.” Beorn looked almost pained that he could not answer more clearly.

Hathach spoke up. “That’s good enough for old Hathach. Melzar, isn’t that good enough for you too? If any father tells his sons that he’s got a treat coming for them but he can’t tell them about it yet--they’ve just got to leave it up to him, don’t you think they should? Especially if that father always gave good surprises in the past, and if the son who knew him best already decided to believe him.

It seems to me Yahweh has already shown Himself trustworthy to Beorn and his mother who know Him far, far better than we do, Melzar. If they are willing to let Him care for the rest of their lives, can’t we believe Him too? Of course we can! We can, and we will do no less.

Beorn’s eyes showed both thankfulness for Hathach’s words as well as a bit of surprise. It sounded like this white-bearded man had thought through much for himself. Beorn wanted to hear more from him.

“Maybe another waterhole,” he thought; “it looks like the camels are done.”