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.
“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.
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 reason 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, I’ll give you all this,” Herod said, showing both hands full of ceremonial incense sticks; “for the cat.” Who’s the owner, he wanted to know. Beorn saw the temple priests’ dismay when Herod spoke. He could see this incense was not Herod’s to give away; he just happened to have it to authorize using it at his 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.
