THE GOOD NEWS FROM ST PETER¹S WIFE
Claralice Wolf

I miss Simon. These last years he has been away more than he has been home, and I don¹t always know where he is. But life is more serene, and I don¹t mind that. I was getting too old for all the confusion, the comings and goings. Well, I'll start at the beginning
    Simon married me when I was sixteen, and right away the children began coming. Those were happy years. I love children. Seven, we had, four boys and three girls. When our fifth, Miriam, was born, my father died and my mother came to live with us. She loved to cook, so her help made housekeeping easier for me. She was a wonderful companion
    Simon always plunged impetuously into everything he did. Like a boy. Too often without thinking. He was like another child in the house. I often said to Mama, "Will he never grow up
    But I love him. And he did. Grow up, that is
    Yes, yes, you asked me about how I came to know Jesus
    It began the day he came to our house. Mama had been real sick, and the newest baby - lets see, that was number six, Joel - he was only four months old - so I had had my hands full managing all alone and nursing Mama, too. It was the Sabbath, and of course I could not leave the house to go to Synagogue. Simon went and took Nathan and Jude
    They were late returning. Suddenly the boys burst in at the door, more excited than usual, and the younger children dashed to the door to greet their Aba, then immediately turned shy because he had brought a stranger with him
    They weren't shy long. The stranger was as friendly as my kids, dropping to rest on his heels so he could look them in the eyes. Miriam was trying to snuggle onto his knee, and nearly knocked him over
    Simon just stood there with that sheepish look on his face that he gets when he realizes he has "done it again," but that he "can explain." I felt cross. Had he stopped to think of how sick mother was before he invited a stranger home? Did he expect me to prepare a meal? He knew I was tired. He knew that I hated to miss Sabbath service. He knew how much I liked seeing and talking to my friends, and - well, you know how a woman feels when it all piles up
    My face, no doubt, showed my anger, but oh, I'm so glad I said no unkind words in haste
    The man stood up, shaking off children, and looked at me. His eyes held such understanding and sympathy
    "You have beautiful children," he said. But I heard more, though he didn't say the words. His look said them. "I know how tired you are. I can see the love with which you have been doing your work, and I am pleased with you . God is pleased with you."
    My anger and weariness oozed away, and I felt so free and at ease with him that I told him about Mama
    "She's been sick for almost a week, real sick, but perhaps you'd like to say hello to her." I don't know what made me do it
    We went into her room. She looked gray and deathly tired, with a deep crease between her eyes. I felt her cheek, and she was still hot
    Jesus stood and looked down at Mama, then bent over and put one arm under her shoulder, his other hand grasped her hand. You'd think she was his own mother
    "Hello, Naomi," he said. "Have you had enough of being sick? God wants you to be well. Here, sit up." He drew her up and the room felt charged with energy. "Come out and have something to eat with the rest of us," he said
    Well! Mama sat up, her color came back. She smiled at the stranger and said, "I'd like a pita with feta cheese. How about you?"
    And off she went to the kitchen to fix a lunch
    All the time we were eating, Jesus talked about God. He called God "Father." Or he talked about the Kingdom of God, and what it is like. Simon was captivated, but I must admit Mama and I were smitten, too
    Jesus didn't have the leisure to linger, because people began coming to our house, bringing sick folk with them. It seemed that he had healed a man at the synagogue that morning, and the news was all over town
    Next afternoon when Simon came home from fishing, he told me that Jesus had preached down at the shore. The crowd had been so dense that he had stood in our boat to have room. Afterwards he had gone out on the water with Simon and his crew, and it was Jesus who found a school of fish so large that it had filled their boat
    And now, Simon told me, he was going to quit fishing and go with Jesus. The Zebedee boys, too. They were going to travel from village to village to spread the good news to the whole country
    What this "good news" was, well, Simon was a little vague, and really I was skeptical that he'd stick with it, now that business was in such good shape, but he went, and he stayed with it. He gave it the same zest he had always given to fishing
    I think that what he had discovered was that there is something of far greater value than the excitement of fishing, or the challenge of getting rich. Jesus called it the pearl of great price. That's why I named our last child Margarita, pearl
    Simon wasn't home when she was born. He was away weeks at a time. Once he came home with a new name. Peter! But he'll always be Simon to me, the boy I fell in love with
    How did we manage? Well, I rented our boat to some young fellows, and the money that we had saved for the wharf I invested, and - well we never wanted for anything. We lived on a little less, but we have always been happy and contented.
    Simon always was a good "talker" and when he was home for a visit, he would explain to us the "good news" that Jesus was preaching. Gradually, I think, he really began to understood it. Mama and I felt we had caught on the very first day, but we could never put it into words. It would have been easier to explain what it is not. Later I realized that everyone has to learn it, feel it, know it for herself or himself, and for each one the good news is different. A different knowing. It wasn't the same for Mama as it was for me. Maybe because he had cured her of a different illness
    For me? I think the good news for me was in those words, "You have beautiful children." At that moment I knew that he knew me and I could tell him anything and it would be all right. He helped me to see that God cares about me. Who I am and what I am is known in heaven. This man had the words of life
    My name? Yes, I have a name. Peter knows it. So does my Friend, Jesus

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