Favored One

When an angel appears and tells her that she is, out of wedlock, to become the mother of the Son of the divine Adonai, Miryam, a young woman in the backwaters of the Roman Empire, believes she must give up her betrothed to obey God. To her surprise, her betrothed marries her and raises the promised child, Yeshua, as his own. As an adult, Yeshua gives up the family carpentry business to start fulfilling his destiny as Messiah, but his half brothers resent him. Torn between the children from her husband and the child from God, Miryam finally becomes one of Yeshua's unconventional female disciples, a talmidah. After hearing many parables and witnessing supernatural acts, Miryam is more convinced than ever that her son is the Messiah and that Adonai will not let his Messiah die. It is with consternation, then, that she hears members of Yeshua's special Twelve speaking with confusion about how he keeps saying he must be killed. The Pesach festival approaches, and Yeshua and all his followers return to Yerushalayim, the people's holy city. Yeshua enters the city with great fanfare, riding on a donkey, and Miryam hopes her misgivings are false, but by the end of the festival, Yeshua is hanging from a cross. Miryam alternates between grief and rage after watching her firstborn son die at the hands of such brutality. Yet days later, MIryam and the other women disciples are met by an angel who tells them Yeshua is alive. A gloriously confusing but joyous day ensues as Yeshua's followers encounter their resurrected Lord. Miryam returns to her other children to tell them the news, though she doesn't expect them to believe it. However, the ice between the brothers seems to be melting. By the time of the next festival, the followers, now including Yeshua's brothers, return to Yerushalayim. Yeshua, on the other hand, returns to his Father, but not before mysteriously telling his loved ones to wait for his Spirit to come to them in Yerushalayim. More willing to trust his baffling utterances than before, Miryam and the others do wait as instructed, and the Spirit does descend to them. It is as they are speaking in languages they have never learned before that Miryam has a new epiphany: in the beginning, she and she alone was asked to bear the Messiah. Now all of his people will bear the Messiah, as well, throughout the world.

• | Author: Jennifer A G Layte
• | Publisher: Notes On Pilgrimage
• | Publication Date: Jul 16, 2019
• | Number of Pages: 328 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Paperback
• | ISBN-10: 0578478420
• | ISBN-13: 9780578478425