We have done a little “imagining” together, and thank God for that amazing facility! We can imagine ourselves walking the earth with Jesus; we can imagine the touch of His hand upon our faces; we can imagine His compassionate glance turned our way.

         Imagine for a moment that you fell asleep one night in the stucco-walled room of a modest house where you lived as a cultural outsider, orphaned and cared for by a kind uncle, far from your own people, except those who also lived with you as “strangers in a strange land.”  Do you have it?  Can you smell the dust of the roads and feel the warmth of the day and hear the cry of merchants and drovers in the streets?

         Now imagine that less than twenty-four hours later you have been picked up against your will with hundreds of other women, and that you have been told the ruler, and by ruler we mean potentate, of the land intents to choose from among all of you to take a new wife. Your new dwelling is a palace and your surroundings are luxurious beyond description, but your prospects are not to be envied unless you should be the chosen woman, for no one gets the King’s cast-offs to call their own.  

         Imagine it is YOU. Imagine you are really there in the harem of the King. Imagine the former queen has been deposed and one of you will be chosen to replace her. If we are really employing our imaginations, that is probably enough imagery for one day.

         Thank God that, when you were seized from your uncle’s home, you can take Cor Unum with you!

Poster from Jean Cocteau’s movie,

Belle et la Bete

public domain