Few tragedies can match that of unrequited love.

The physics are inescapable.

When adoration collides with indifference or ambivalence, tears fall.

And then there is the question, will the spurned party give up hope, or will they risk deeper wounds with further pursuit?

This is a story about a beautiful marriage gone wrong. It's a story about auspicious beginnings and betrayal and consequences, about the joys of proximity and the curse of distance. And it's a story about a kind,

severe God determined to love those who struggle to love him back.

I'm Justin Gerhardt.

Welcome to Holy Ghost Stories.

Thank you. The sun has not yet risen.

Its rays, though, have scaled the wall of horizon, chasing the black from the sky.

Bird song echoes off the mountains.

And with one eye on the mountain,

Moses sets to work.

One rock, then another and another,

heaved from the sand and carried to the pile

that is more than a pile.

It is an altar.

Building an altar of unhewn stones is a straightforward task,

but it requires care.

Each rock must be considered.

Its contours and crevices, its protrusions and idiosyncrasies.

Every rock is different, and Moses must find a way to help them coexist, fit together,

...