My Friend Simcha

 

From her vantage point the mountains below spread out forever. She had inherited this place of peace from an ancient scribe, Simcha the Jew, who painted and taught and read and wrote. He was a foreigner here, like her, though he had lived 

in this simple wooden house his entire life. 

"Why do they call you 'the Jew'?" She'd asked him once.

He was surprised, "They don't call me that. I call myself that. I say it all the time."

"Why?" She wondered.

He replied, "So they will know."

It was like Simcha to say something and leave it at that. He wanted to be known, understood, heard, but it was like he spoke another language. Some people hide their faith and others their background. They'll see us, you know, if we speak up. 

Simcha knew they see us anyway. Better to be bold. 

He was no ordinary man. Simcha knew God. He knew Jesus the Messiah. That made him a stranger to his own people, and stranger still to those who do not know God and reject the Son. He was alone on that mountain, or so he thought, until she came and asked him a million questions. You are just as strange as me, he thought, but never said aloud, because he did not want her to know. 

And so she stood staring at the open sky, in the frame of the wooden door, high on a mountain, thinking of all she'd learned from Simcha the Jew. It was a lot.

Forgiveness. How had she learned that? 

As far as she could tell Simcha never held a grudge. Maybe that's how.

Refuse offense. You could not offend Simcha. 

He lived in peace because he chose to, not because the world is perfect.

He forgave and he blessed those the Almighty put within his reach, continually, each day, all the time, and when the sun relaxed into a peaceful sleep so did Simcha. 

She was afraid of the whole world. "It's horrible," she said. He disagreed. 

"Don't be afraid of them," he said. 

"All of these problems are really one problem and they have one answer: Jesus."

It was like Simcha to say something and leave it at that. 

Sometimes people misunderstood him and sometimes they did not. 

She understood him and stood at the doorway looking out for someone to bless.