You will sow much seed in the field, but you will harvest little because locusts will devour it.

Deuteronomy 2838.

I will stay until you return.

Judges 6.18.

Where is Yahweh when you need him?

When you're tired, when you long for rescue, for better, when things are so hard, it's almost laughable, when the absurdity of it all threatens to make a cynic out of you.

Where is he then?

This is a story about self-imposed suffering the prisons in which we lock ourselves the blame we cast when the bars seem oppressive and more than anything it's a story about a god who

somehow remains patient during our absence,

a God who stays until we return, and even perhaps commissions us to play a part in his wonders.

I'm Justin Gerhardt. Welcome to Holy Ghost Stories.

...you know. The

The It's a strange thing putting your child to bed in a cave.

You cannot carry enough blankets or furs to fend off the chill of uncertainty,

the wintry fear that haunts a refugee's heart.

Even the bedtime songs sound strange, bouncing off the limestone walls and echoing through the shadowy corridors as the bats take flight for their evening raids.

Does the boy ask when they'll get them? the bats take flight for their evening raids.

Does the boy ask when they'll get to go back home?

Does he play along when his father tries to turn the whole thing into a game?

Will he dream tonight?

Will his subconscious imagine a life of peace?

Best if he doesn't, thinks his father, perhaps.

...