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\u201cMonica!\u00a0 Wait!\u201d<\/p>\n
Monica, a well-dressed woman in her late thirties, was just getting ready to go out the church door when she heard her friend, Clare, calling to her.\u00a0 She turned around and waited for Clare, who was doing her best to walk at a hurried pace in her wobbly, high-heeled shoes.\u00a0 Clare had been away for quite some time, and Monica had forgotten how awkward and uncomfortable Clare looked when she wore those shoes.<\/p>\n
\u201cMonica!\u00a0 It\u2019s been so long!\u201d Clare panted.\u00a0 \u201cI\u00a0 heard the adoption finally went through.\u00a0 Congratulations!\u201d<\/p>\n
Monica raised her eyebrows.\u00a0 \u201cWhat did you hear about the adoption?\u00a0 The details, I mean.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, nothing about the details,\u201d Clare replied hesitantly.\u00a0 \u201cWhy?\u00a0 Is something wrong?\u00a0 Didn\u2019t it go through?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, it went through, all right.\u00a0 But it wasn\u2019t quite what we were expecting.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do you mean?\u00a0 You were hoping to adopt a boy, weren\u2019t you?\u00a0 Did you end up adopting a girl instead?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, no.\u00a0 Look, Clare, let\u2019s sit down.\u00a0 This will take a few minutes to explain.\u201d<\/p>\n
The two ladies went to the other side of the plushly carpeted church lobby and sat on a soft couch in a quiet, secluded corner.\u00a0 Clare, always eager to hear the latest news about anyone or anything in town, leaned forward with hungry eyes to listen to Monica\u2019s story.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell,\u201d Monica began, \u201cas you know, for years Peter and I had been hoping to adopt a nice boy, since we havent been able to have any children of our own.\u00a0 We had contacted agency after agency with no success. Finally someone suggested an agency that places refugees from foreign countries in American homes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOh!\u201d Clare smiled.\u00a0 \u201cSo you got a boy from a foreign country!\u00a0 Does he speak English?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, he speaks English \u2013 with an accent, of course. But Clare, he\u2019s not a boy.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t realize it, but that agency places adults in American homes \u2013 adults who need American sponsors.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clare\u2019s smile suddenly disappeared as her jaw dropped in disbelief.\u00a0 \u201cYou and Peter adopted an adult?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you want to word it that way, yes.\u00a0 We\u2019re letting him live in our home, anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, what\u2019s he like?\u00a0 How\u2019s it working out?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a mixed blessing, I guess. You see, he\u2019s Jewish.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cJewish?!\u00a0 Life is strange, Monica.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTalk about strange, Clare.\u00a0 We were expecting the agency to bring us a nice Christian boy, and instead, this 30-year-old Orthodox Jewish man arrives at our door, a homeless refugee.\u00a0 We answered the doorbell, and there he stood, long beard, long dark coat, and those funny looking strings hanging out of his pants.\u00a0 At first I thought his underwear must be unraveling, then I remembered the Jews have a custom of wearing some kind of ritual fringes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat did you do?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, what could we do?\u00a0 We invited him in after he introduced himself and told us who had sent him.\u00a0 Of course we tried to contact the agency that had sent him, but it took us three days to finally get the right person on the phone.\u00a0 The agency apologized for the mix-up, then asked if we might possibly consider letting the man stay with us anyway.\u00a0 It seems there aren\u2019t many American families willing to share their homes with his kind.\u00a0 Peter and I talked it over, and it seemed to be the Christian thing to do, so we agreed to let him stay.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWow!\u201d Clare exclaimed.\u00a0 This is some story!\u00a0 I\u2019ll bet you and Peter have had to make some adjustments. What\u2019s it like having this guy in your home?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAs I said, it\u2019s a mixed blessing.\u00a0 Even though he\u2019s not a Christian, he\u2019s really a good man, Clare.\u00a0 But he\u2019s so\u2026 strange.\u00a0 To us, I mean.\u00a0 He wouldn\u2019t seem strange to his own people,\u00a0 I\u2019m sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s strange about him?\u00a0 Besides his appearance.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell,\u201d Monica smiled, \u201cone of the first things he did was to ask our permission to attach a little box onto the door frame of our house.\u00a0 It contains a little parchment with some Bible verses.\u00a0 He called it a \u2018Mazzaroth,\u2019 I think.\u00a0 I looked in a concordance of the Old Testament, and found the word in the thirty-eighth chapter of Job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Monica pronounced the name Job like the word job, but it didn\u2019t matter to Clare, since she always said it that way, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cA Mazzaroth, huh?\u00a0 That is a strange custom. Harmless enough, I suppose.\u00a0 I wonder where they get these weird ideas.\u00a0 What else?\u201d Clare asked eagerly.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, he has peculiar eating habits. Very picky.\u00a0 He won\u2019t eat ham or bacon or pork chops \u2013 nothing with any pork products in it.\u00a0 He refuses to eat seafood, too.\u00a0 \u2018It has to have both fins and scales,\u2019 he says.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe won\u2019t eat lobster?\u201d Clare responded in disbelief.\u00a0 \u201cWhat\u2019s he do during Lent?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, he doesn\u2019t really do any thing for Lent,\u201d Monica answered. \u201cHe\u2019s Jewish, and Lent is a Christian custom.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, of course, I wasn\u2019t thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah. His strange diet wouldn\u2019t be so bad, but he\u2019s always reading ingredient labels on everything in the kitchen.\u00a0 That kind of irks me.\u00a0 Although he usually just buys his own food and eats it off paper plates.\u00a0 Oh, and there\u2019s one week every spring when he refuses to eat anything with yeast in it.\u00a0 He just eats these big crackers called \u2018mitzvahs\u2019 with his meals all that week.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDoes all this make it hard on you?\u201d Clare inquired sympathetically.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, Peter and I have had to make some adjustments in our diet,\u201d Monica confessed.\u00a0 \u201cBut actually, we\u2019ve noticed a change for the better. We both feel healthier and more energetic than we used to.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s good,\u201d Clare said, nodding her head approvingly.\u00a0 \u201cAnything else unusual about him?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, he\u2019s always looking at the calendar, carefully counting off days and marking certain times that the Jews observe.\u00a0 Of course, he never wants to come to Mass with us on Sundays.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s right,\u201d Clare interjected. \u201cJews go to church on Saturdays, don\u2019t they?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRight,\u201d Monica agreed.\u00a0 \u201cBut they don\u2019t call it church.\u00a0 And of course that means he isn\u2019t available to help us with the housework and yardwork on Saturdays.\u00a0 At first, Peter was annoyed that he wouldn\u2019t help with the work on Saturdays.\u00a0 But he does more than his share the rest of the week.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDoes he do anything besides housework and yardwork?\u201d Clare asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, yes,\u201d Monica replied.\u00a0 This month he\u2019s been helping Peter build a room addition onto our house.\u00a0 At first we didn\u2019t know if he\u2019d be of much help, but once Peter showed him how to use the power tools, he really caught on.\u00a0 He\u2019s really becoming quite a carpenter.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut he won\u2019t do any kind of work on Saturdays, huh?\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s right,\u201d Monica answered. \u201cBut with his helping so much on the weekdays, we don\u2019t have to do any housework or yardwork on Saturdays anymore.\u00a0 He always makes sure everything\u2019s done before sundown on Friday.\u00a0 It\u2019s really kind of nice.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, I guess that would be a blessing,\u201d Clare smiled.\u00a0 \u201cBy the way, what\u2019s his name, and where\u2019s he from?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, didn\u2019t I\u00a0 tell you?\u201d Monica apologized.\u00a0 \u201cHe\u2019s from Israel, the town of Nazareth.\u00a0 He said most of the people in\u00a0 his country know him by the name Yeshu, but some of his friends call him Yeshua.\u00a0 Both of those names are kind of hard for me to say, so he told us we can just call him \u2018Joshua\u2019 if we want.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cJoshua from Nazareth, huh?\u201d Clare said thoughtfully.\u00a0 \u201cWell,\u00a0 I admire you for putting up with him, Monica, but I\u2019m sure glad this strange Jew doesn\u2019t live at my house!\u00a0 I gotta go.\u00a0 See you in church next week.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShalom, Clare.\u201d<\/p>\n