THE STORY OF
CALEB
“Good morning, Mith Mary,” Caleb called through the back fence.
“Good morning, Caleb. You are up early, and I do believe you forgot to put your front teeth in — they seem to be missing!”
Caleb giggled at Mrs. Mary’s silliness.
“Ask your mother if you can come over and see what I found in the garden this morning.” She knew he would be right over.
In just a few seconds they were exploring a tiny nest of baby birds hidden in some bushes near the garden wall.
The mother bird was not happy with their exploring, so Mrs. Mary invited Caleb to come and sit closer to the house so Mother Bird could feed her little ones.
“Caleb, how are you going to eat if you keep losing your teeth? And how are you going to grow if you can’t eat?” Caleb loved Mrs. Mary and proudly showed her the fresh new hole left by his latest loss.
“My goodness, I remember when my boys were losing their teeth. You know it means you are going to start growing very fast now!”
“Mith Mary, where are your boys?”
“Oh, they are all grown up. They started losing their teeth and the next thing you know — whoosh — they just grew up!”
Caleb’s eyes got wide as he imagined growing up overnight.
“How many boys did you have?”
“I have five very special boys. Jesus, James, Joseph — who we call Josie, and Jude. Then I had Simon. He was my baby. And I have two little twin girls who are all grown up and are mommies now. They all live around here except for Jesus. I’m sure you’ve met some of them. In fact, my grandson Jacob is the same age as you and you probably know him at school. I wonder if he’s lost any teeth yet?”
“Where does Jesus live?”
“He lives in Capernaum, up in Galilee. But he comes and visits me sometimes.
“Oh, my, you startled me!” Mrs. Mary stood and hugged a young man.
“Caleb and I were just talking about you and I was hoping that you would visit soon. Caleb, this is my oldest boy, Mr. Jesus.”
“Good morning, Mr. Jesus. We were just looking at a bird’s nest by the garden wall.”
“Jesus, this is my neighbor, Caleb.”
Jesus knelt down to get on eye-level with Caleb. “How many babies did you see?”
“Three!” exclaimed Caleb
“I’m glad you are a good neighbor to my mother. She gets lonely sometimes, so I’m glad you are visiting her and being a good friend,” continued Jesus.
“Caleb,” Mother called, “Come eat your breakfast or you’ll be late for school.”
Caleb tried to remember all the polite things to say as he hurried to obey his mother.
He was bursting with pride when he sat down and told his mother all about the baby birds and about meeting Mrs. Mary’s oldest son, Mr. Jesus. “I think he’s the nicest man I’ve ever met!”
“Well, that’s quite a statement! But I tend to agree with you. Jesus has always been a very good man and very, very kind. I’m glad you got to meet him.”
“Have you met him, Mother?”
“Oh, yes. He was just a little older than me and I’ve known him all my life. I mostly played with his younger sisters, but our families were friends and so I knew them all. My older brother, your Uncle Ben, worked with Jesus in his dad’s carpenter shop.
“You’d better get busy or you’ll be late for Hebrew school.”
With a quick kiss, Caleb was out the door and running down the street toward the synagogue. He was glad today was Friday because there was always a spelling test on Fridays, and he loved spelling!
On Saturday morning, Caleb walked slowly between his parents toward the synagogue. His Abba would worship with the other men downstairs. Caleb and his mother and little sister would sit in the balcony with the other women and children.
Caleb wasn’t tall enough to see over the railing but could peek through the slats to see what was happening down below. His mother was chatting with neighbors and friends, and the children played quietly at their mother’s feet. There were several older boys leaning over the railing watching the men below. When the Ruler entered the room downstairs, everyone became quiet.
Shhhhhhhhhh!!!!
The Ruler selected a scroll and started to unroll it, but then paused and smiled when he saw someone he recognized in the crowd. Caleb tried to see who it was, but he couldn’t see his face. The Ruler spoke to the man and invited him to come forward and read.
Caleb was so excited because the man invited to read the Scripture was Mr. Jesus, his new friend. Caleb looked around the group of women to see if Mrs. Mary had noticed, but she was sitting still with her head bowed as if she were praying.
Mr. Jesus began to read from the scroll of Isaiah, but it sounded like he was just talking to the people. He said that God sent him to give good news to the poor, to set the prisoners free, and to heal the blind, and to care for those who were hurting. He also said that this was the year that God was going to bless his people.
Caleb thought Mr. Jesus’ words were beautiful. So did all the other people. They all agreed that he had a beautiful voice and he spoke so well.
Seeing Mr. Jesus again made Caleb feel happy deep inside, and his words made him want to really be good and help other people.
He wondered if Mr. Jesus would visit with Mrs. Mary this afternoon and if maybe he could manage an invitation to visit, too. He liked Mr. Jesus and wanted to learn more about him.
Then Mr. Jesus:
...rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”1
There was some whispering among the people. It seemed everyone was bragging about knowing Mr. Jesus and his family. Caleb felt happy inside because he, too, knew Mrs. Mary, and that made him feel close to Mr. Jesus. He knew that his own mother was friends with Mr. Jesus when they were growing up.
But then Mr. Jesus said,
“…no prophet is accepted in his hometown.”2
And that’s when Caleb realized that something was wrong. His mother grabbed his arm and was pulling him down the stairs. He knew she was mad, but he didn’t know what he had done. He was trying to ask, and she just kept yanking his arm toward home.
Caleb looked behind him and saw that everyone was just pouring out of the synagogue and it looked like the men were fighting. Caleb had never seen anything like this and wanted to watch. But every time he slowed down, his mother pulled his arm harder. He had no choice but to go home with her and hope his Abba would tell him what happened. Apparently, he had missed all the action.
He tried to play with his little sister and keep out of his mother’s way. She still seemed really upset and he didn’t want to displease her. He decided that asking his Abba would be safer.
It was quite a while after noon before his Abba came home and he looked more upset than his mother. What is going on? But he knew better than to ask. Mother was putting his little sister down for a nap when Abba’s best friend Mr. Tyrek came over.
Now, Caleb learned that the commotion was because Mr. Jesus claimed to be a prophet when everyone knew that he was just Jesus, and he claimed that God loved other people just as much as he loved the Jews. Caleb didn’t quite know what to think about either of those things, but they didn’t sound so terrible to him.
Then he learned that the men of the synagogue had tried to kill Mr. Jesus by pushing him over the cliff at the edge of the town of Nazareth. Caleb was horrified to learn that his own Abba had participated in this action.
Caleb didn’t want to hear any more. He rushed out of the house and into the garden. He climbed the apricot tree and looked over into Mrs. Mary’s yard. There he saw her quietly sitting and watching the mother bird feeding her nest full of babies. She didn’t look upset or sad. Caleb felt that he should leave her alone, but the longer he sat there, the more sure he became that maybe she could explain what was going on.
He slipped carefully down the apricot tree and over to the fence. There he very quietly whispered, “Mith Mary?”
She turned toward him and smiled a welcoming smile. “Come, Caleb. I would enjoy some company.”
So, Caleb joined Mrs. Mary in her backyard and sat and visited with her. “Mith Mary, I thought your son read beautifully thith morning.”
“Yes, he did, Caleb. God has blessed him with a good voice.”
“Mith Mary, is Mr. Jesus okay? I heard what the men tried to do to him.”
“Caleb, Caleb, Jesus is fine. Don’t worry about him. His Father will protect him from any harm. Didn’t you hear his message? He said he had been sent by God to preach and teach and heal. God will protect him from anything men will try to do to him. I promise.”
“But Mith Mary, I don’t understand why everyone got so mad at him.”
“Well, Caleb, sometimes people get mad when you try to tell them something new.” Caleb looked at Mrs. Mary and wrinkled up his nose. She knew that he didn’t understand. She thought a minute and then said, “Caleb, you know the wagon that you pull your baby sister in?”
“Yeth Ma’am, she loves it when I give her a ride.”
“Caleb, whose wagon is that?”
“It’s my wagon.”
“It doesn’t belong to your little sister?”
“No, Ma’am. I’ve had that wagon since I was a baby.”
“I see. So, as far as you know, it’s your wagon.”
“Yeth Ma’am. I know it’s mine.”
“Caleb, do you know where that wagon is right now?”
“Yeth Ma’am. It’s in the back yard right by the back door. I park it there when I’m not using it.”
“Caleb, go get that little wagon. I want to show you something.”
Caleb ran to his own back door and got the wagon. His parents were still discussing the fight and didn’t notice his coming and going. He pulled the wagon over to Mrs. Mary.
“Here it is, Mith Mary.”
“Turn it over, Caleb, and look inside the rim of the right front wheel.”
Caleb turned the wagon over and looked inside the rim.
He could see an “R” and a “Y”, but he couldn’t figure out the rest of the letters because there was some mud caked up under the rim.
R Y
Mrs. Mary helped him wash off the mud and there, plain as ever, was the word:
M A R Y
“Caleb, why does your wagon have my name on it?”
Now, Caleb was really puzzled. He scratched his head and admitted he didn’t know.
“When I had baby James, my second son, my husband Joseph made that wagon. He put my name on it — because he said he wanted to have lots of kids, and he didn’t want them fighting over it. So, that wagon really belongs to me — not you.”
“Then how did I get the wagon?”
“I gave it to you to play with when you were very little — but it’s not yours — it’s mine.”
Caleb sat quietly for a few minutes. “Thank you, Mith Mary, for letting me play with your wagon. I’ll take extra good care of it.”
“I know you will, Caleb. I only told you that story so that you would understand that sometimes people think they know the whole story — when they might not.”
Caleb sat quietly and thought about what Mrs. Mary had told him.
“Mith Mary, Jesus said he was sent by God to do great things. Is that true?”
“Yes, Caleb, it is very true. He’s been healing sick people, and preaching to people who were unhappy, and helping people to figure out how to please God.”
“Mith Mary, Mr. Tyrek and my parents are very mad because Jesus said that God loves everyone — not just Jews. Is that true?”
“Oh, yes, Caleb, that is very, very true. God created everyone and loves them very much. In fact, he sent Jesus so that everyone in the whole wide world would know that God loves them.”
“That’s a good thing, isn’t it, Mith Mary?
“Oh, Caleb, it’s a wonderful thing to know that God loves you. And he loves every single boy and girl in the whole wide world. And he loves them even when they don’t know it!”
“I love you, Mith Mary!”
Caleb heard his mother calling, “Caleb, where are you? It’s almost supper time. I need you to watch your sister while I prepare supper.”
“Coming, Mother!”
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Caleb. Oops, don’t forget your wagon!”
“My sister will enjoy a ride in your wagon. Thank you for letting me use it.”
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