The word for today is “cost.” There are many forms of this word if you look it up in the Hebrew and Greek texts. There’s also many words that mean the opposite of “cost,” one of which is the word “dorean.” This word in Greek means, “as a gift; to no purpose.” It is used in context to mean “as a free gift, without payment, freely.”
Matthew, Mark, and Luke all tell the story of Jesus sending out the twelve. Matthew’s Gospel has a very unique statement though, not found in the others.
Freely you received. Freely give. Without cost. Free means you don’t pay for it. Well, if you don’t pay for it, who did?
Jesus. The cost was His. All throughout the Gospels Jesus went around doing things He was going to pay for.
In Isaiah 55:1, there is a prophetic statement by Isaiah about the coming Messiah.
“Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you without money,
come, buy, and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost!”-Isaiah 55:1 (BSB)
Doesn’t this Scripture sound like the above passage from Matthew that we just read?
Freely. Without cost.
It didn’t cost you or me. But it did cost Jesus. It cost Him his life. But He laid it down willingly. Nobody took it from Him.
In John’s Gospel, Jesus said,
“No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from My Father.”-John 10:18 (BSB)
So it did cost something. But it only cost Jesus. We don’t have to pay for it.
Now, should we feel sadness that it cost Jesus his life? I don’t think so. Often people feel so bad for Jesus, but He did it of His own free will, His own choice. He paid something we could never pay.
In John chapter 7, Jesus makes a statement that sounds very much like the one in Isaiah 55:1.
“On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood up and called out in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.”-John 7:37 (BSB)
Finally, we hear these statements echoed again twice in the Book of Revelation.
“And He told me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give freely from the spring of the water of life.”-Revelation 21:6 (BSB)
“The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” Let the one who hears say, “Come!” And let the one who is thirsty come, and the one who desires the water of life drink freely.”- Revelation 22:17
The word freely in both of those Scriptures in Revelation is the Greek word “dorean” that we started with in Matthew’s Gospel.
Freely. Freely.
My prayer for today is that we would continue to grow in grace and in our knowledge of Him. May we be anchored in the fact that He paid it all, not with feelings of sadness, but with gratitude and joy. I pray that we would move deeper into that knowledge, and learn how to share the blessing of the Gospel with our words to others, so they may come to know as well that He freely gives, without cost.
Today I looked up the Hebrew and the Greek words for “nourish.” There are only 3 Hebrew words for the word “nourish,” but many others in the Hebrew and the Greek for variations of the word including nourished, nourisher, nourisheth, nourishing, and nourishment. The word I am going to cover today is the word “ektrepho” in Greek
There are only two occurrences of this specific Greek word being used in the New Testament. They are both in the book of Ephesians. One is Ephesians 6:4 that talks about nurturing your children in the admonition of the Lord. The other is found in Ephesians 5:29, and is the subject of what I am going to discuss today.
Ephesians 5:29 reads:.
“Indeed, no one ever hated his own body, but he nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church. For we are members of His body.” (BSB)
That word “ektrepho” means to “bring up to maturity; to nourish.” There are quite a few variants of this word in Greek and they all have the connotation of nourishing.
When we look at Ephesians 5:29, we recognize that it’s about Jesus. It’s about Jesus taking care of the church in a specific way. He doesn’t hate us. In fact it is quite the opposite; He loves us. If you read the verses in Ephesians 5 before this one, it discusses a marriage relationship and how the husband ought to love his wife.
Because Jesus loves us, He takes care of us, nourishing and cherishing us. We are part of Him.
Do you ever slow down and meditate on Jesus this way? I want to make it personal for myself. I am part of the Body of Christ, so I can believe these thoughts that the Scripture shares.
Jesus loves me. He nourishes me. He cherishes me. He is bringing me to maturity in Him.
“for this reason I bow my knees before the Father,from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I ask that out of the riches of His glory He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. Then you, being rooted and grounded in love, will have power, together with all the saints, to comprehend the length and width and height and depth of the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”-Ephesians 3:14-19 (BSB)
That’s my prayer for me today, and my prayer for you. I pray that we would allow Him to nourish us with His love, and that we would become mature in His love. I pray that we would swim in it daily, and feel safe, nourished, and comfortable in this love. Amen.
Today I looked up Greek and Hebrew words that mean the word “friend.” There are five Hebrew words listed in Strong’s Expanded Dictionary of Bible Words that mean “friend,” and there are three Greek words. I am going to look at one of the Greek words today that most people are probably familiar with. It’s the word “philos.”
The word “philos” can be found 29 times in the New Testament according to Biblehub.com. It means “beloved, dear and friendly.”
In Matthew 11:19, this word is used to describe Jesus.
“The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at this glutton and drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ But wisdom is vindicated by her actions.”-Matthew 11:19 (BSB)
Jesus was beloved, dear, and friendly to people who were considered sinners. That word sinners is the word “hamartolos” in Greek, and it means sinful. It comes from the root word, “hamartano” which means “to miss the mark, do wrong, sin.”
I think that word for sinners would describe all of us at some point in our lives. And yet, Jesus would still be called our friend.
I love that the definition also means beloved. Later on in the New Testament, in the epistles, Paul, John, Jude and Paul all refer to us as “beloved.”
Jesus came to show us what that relationship would look like with Him.
Do you think of Jesus as your friend? Is it hard for you to imagine Him that way?
I think it helps, if we sit and meditate on Him, being our friend, and treating us the same way He treated those in the Gospel stories.
Today I looked up all the words in my Strong’s Expanded Dictionary of Bible Words that mean “space.” There are many words that mean “space” in relation to time.
While I was studying, I kept thinking about Jesus being the Lord of time and space.
In John chapter 2, Jesus turns water into wine. Making wine is not an easy process. I don’t really know a lot about making wine, but logically speaking, it has many steps. You first have to grow grapes. Then you have to harvest grapes. Then you have to squeeze the juice out, bottle it, and wait for it to ferment.
Jesus bypasses all that.
In John chapter 2 we read:
“Now six stone water jars had been set there for the Jewish rites of purification. Each could hold from twenty to thirty gallons.Jesus told the servants, “Fill the jars with water.”
So they filled them to the brim.
“Now draw some out,” He said, “and take it to the master of the banquet.”
They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not know where it was from, but the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, “Everyone serves the fine wine first, and then the cheap wine after the guests are drunk. But you have saved the fine wine until now!”
Jesus performed this, the first of His signs, at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed His glory, and His disciples believed in Him.”-John 2:6-11 (BSB)
He did in a space of moments what it takes winemakers years to accomplish. And the banquet master said it was the best!!
What does this say about the character of Jesus? How does the knowledge of this part of His character impact our lives?
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”-Hebrews 13:8 (BSB)
Here’s something interesting to think about. When the Israelites entered the Promised Land, they were led by Joshua. Moses was not allowed to go. Why was that? I think sometimes we think God was harsh for not allowing Moses to go in, since he had led them that whole way. But I think there is a bigger picture here.
Joshua is a type of Christ. In Hebrew his name is “Yehoshua,” which means, “the Lord is salvation.” He led the Israelites into the Promised Land. It was a land of great blessings for them, that they did not work for.
To me this sounds like Jesus. Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua, and also means “the Lord is salvation” or “Yahweh saves.”
Jesus leads us into our Promised Land, which is life in Christ. It is a land flowing with milk and honey, a land we didn’t work for, full of the richest blessings that Jesus paid for with his life.
So, again, why couldn’t Moses go into the Promised Land with the Israelites? If you remember, once during the Gospels Jesus took Peter, James, and John up onto a high mountain. Elijah and Moses appeared and started talking with Jesus. Moses is a picture of the law, and Elijah is a picture of the prophets.
While they were talking, this happened:
Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If You wish, I will put up three shelters— one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” While Peter was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him!”…Matthew 17:4-5 (BSB)
The reason Moses couldn’t go into the Promised Land is because the law cannot go in with you to your Promised Land in Christ. Moses was a picture of the law, even in the Old Testament account. Joshua, a type of Jesus led the Israelites in, just as Jesus leads us as Believers into our Promised Land.
Romans 6:14 says,
For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. (NKJV)
Isn’t it beautiful that God put this picture for us in this Old Testament account of us going into the Promised Land without the law?
I’ve been reading this book called The End of the Magi by Patrick Carr. It is a fiction book about the magi traveling, following the star to find the Messiah, the King of Israel. The setting starts with the book of Daniel, which I think might have been about 500 years or so before the birth of Jesus. The premise of the story is the creation of the magi in Daniel’s time to ensure that the calendar of when the Messiah will arrive is kept, based on the prophecy.
I don’t know how much of the content is fiction and how much is fact. I haven’t studied that particular part of the Scriptures very much, but it has given me a lot to think about. The magi had a sincere expectation of the coming King. They were expecting him so much, they tracked it with a calendar.
I believe many others in Israel were the same. When you read the Gospels, it is sometimes evident that they were expecting him. It was not like he was just some random guy who showed up on the scene, and they were like, “Hey, he is doing some cool stuff, so let’s follow him.” I believe they were so anchored in what the Scriptures said about Him, that when He arrived, many were like, “He’s here!!”
One example is the woman with the issue of blood. In her story, she says to herself, “if I can just touch His garment, I will be healed.” That is a reference to a prophecy in Malachai, where the “sun of righteousness would arise with healing in his wings.” The wings of his garment were called the tzitzit, and I imagine that’s where she touched.
I was reading something yesterday about numbers in the Bible, and it said that in 1 Peter, Peter made references to Old Testament Scriptures something like 28 times. I do not remember the exact number, but it was such a high number that I was amazed. I don’t notice everything a Jewish person might notice in that letter that he mentioned from the Old Testament. Their lives were steeped in Scripture. They lived it, through geography, food, festivals, and the Torah and other writings. They just didn’t look at it and move on with their day. Their lives were absorbed in it. So, they had an expectation of Jesus’ arrival.
I think we are getting ready to come full circle. As we get ready to celebrate Christmas, I am also more aware of The Lord’s second coming. It might be tomorrow, and it might be next year. But my heart is set, and I am looking for Him, with ernest expectation waiting for Him to come again.
“Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven.-Acts 1:11 (Berean Study Bible)
*This is a fiction story inspired by the events in Mark chapter 1 & 2 in the Gospels.
Cast of Characters:
Portia-Peter’s Mother-in-Law
Zeruiah-Peter’s wife
Hosea-Paralyzed man from Mark chapter 2
*****
“Ima, are you going to visit Hosea today?” Zeruiah flipped the bread and continued to knead it gently. “I am making some bread, but it will not be ready for a while. You can take some with you for him if you are going later.”
“Thank you my dear,” Portia called out from the bedroom. “But I am getting ready to go now. I will take something we already have on hand. He needs nourishment, so I am not sure just the bread will be enough for him. I can take some of our leftover bread from yesterday’s meal, but I think it would be good to include some pomegranates, figs, goat cheese, plus some of the chickpea stew. I haven’t been for a few days, and I don’t know if his family has checked on him since then. He is so angry all the time. I have gotten used to his gruff manner, but he has pained them so that it is still hard for them to go over there.”
“You would think they would have pity for him in his condition. I know they are hurt by his lashing out, but the man can’t walk. He is paralyzed and needs regular assistance. Couldn’t they just get over their pain to help comfort him in his?”
“Sometimes it is hard darling for people to recover from their childhoods. Their parents may have said harsh words, or worse left physical marks on their bodies that extended into their souls. You have had a good life Zeruiah. Your father and I always tried to keep you in the ways of Yahweh and that meant loving each other. Even though Hosea is a Jewish man, his family has adopted some of the ways of the Greeks, and they have not always been kind to one another. You know that my parents were influenced as well and that is how I got my name.”
“Yes Ima. I know. You tell me all the time.” Zeruiah laughed as she reminded her mother that she knew their history. “Peter will be here shortly. It will not be much longer and we will be married. Will you be glad to finally be rid of me?”
“No my love. I will not. Maybe you and Peter should just live here, yes?
But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and you will go out and leap like calves from the stall.– Malachi 4:2
It was an adventure to write this story. I believe it was 2013 or 2014 when I first became really interested in the woman with the issue of blood. I think I even mentioned writing a story about her to one of my friends who is also a writer around that time. I began studying her and listening to sermons about her, and she has become one of my favorite accounts of someone interacting with Jesus.
Please note that this was a very rough draft because I wrote it all during the month of October. A lot of what I wrote about are things I have learned over years of studying her, hearing sermons about her story. and recent education about Jewish culture. I am sure I still got some things wrong. I endeavored not to change anything at all about the Biblical accounts, but to only build around them, to fill in details we were not given with my imagination.
The Gospel writers do not give the woman with the issue of blood a name. She is simply referred to as “a woman” and then a report about her condition. I chose to give her the name Ariella, because I liked it. It seemed like a strong, but also delicate, name for a woman. I believe I found the name online, but I have a Bible names book that has the name Ariel, a variation of Ariella. The word is used several times in the Old Testament, and while researching the name again for the author notes, I found out it is a symbolic name for Jerusalem. It means lioness of God.
Other characters that were real people in the accounts in the Gospels, and in my story include Matthew, Peter, Andrew, Jairus, Jairus daughter, the leper, and of course Jesus. They were all a part of several other actual Biblical stories I included in the story, one that was occurring simultaneously with the story of the woman with the issue of blood, thes story of the healing of Jairus daughter. I gave Jairus’ daughter a name also, Mahlah. It is a Hebrew name that means “mildness.” Jairus’ daughter was unnamed in the Gospel accounts about her. The Bible doesn’t tell us what happened after she was healed, only that she was healed by Jesus. I didn’t include that part because Ariella wasn’t there, but I still wanted to wrap her story up, so I added her to the end of my story with Ariella. It is fun to think about what the lives were like for these people beyond their amazing encounters with Jesus.
People that were an invention of my imagination included Dassah, Benjamin, Ethan, Shua, Thomas, Elijah, and Ariella’s father. When I started the story, I didn’t know how important Dassah, Ariella’s best friend was going to become, but she was a key figure in Ariella’s journey. I didn’t plan that out. It just sort of happened. We don’t know if the real woman with the issue of blood had someone like that in her life, but it is a plausible explanation for how she heard about Jesus.
I chose for her to live in Capernaum, because it seemed to be one of the most logical places, based on other events surrounding her account. She could have lived in another small village or town, but I believe she was close to the Sea of Galilee based on the way the events were recorded in the Gospels, especially in the account of Mark. Because of this it made sense to place her house near the sea of Galilee also.
While looking for some information about the different seasons, I found a chart that said this event probably took place in autumn, so that made it easy to work in the temperature changes as one of the elements to the story. This discovery also led me to include The Feast of Tabernacles as an element of the story as well.
It is never revealed why the woman was bleeding, or how it started. I did some research and found out the name of this condition is called menorrhagia, and could be potentially caused by a miscarriage.I have had a miscarriage, so that was something familiar to me, and why I chose to include it in my story. My goal was to take her on a journey from feeling unclean to having faith in Jesus, while taking you the reader along with her.
As far as her occupation with her father and husband, I don’t know if women would have been involved in the duties of fishermen, but I have always imagined her doing something like that.
I gave her a love for making bread because it is something she would have done daily anyway, but would have had so much practice she would have become very skilled at it. And maybe in my mind it was sort of a gift. I have a book called The Food and Feasts of Jesus: Inside the World of First-Century Fare, with Menus and Recipes that I referred to extensively so I could include some authentic information about food. Several meals are mentioned in my story including daily lunch, Shabbat, a banquet, and a nod to the Feast of Tabernacles which would be held around the time of the year the account takes place. The prayers I included also came from the Food and Feasts book and would have been a part of their meals.
According to a Bible study I did called Missing Pieces in the Life of Rabbi Yeshua, little girls would have learned the Torah. They would have memorized several books of the Old Testament, and as an adult, she would have gone to synagogue. So if she paid attention, and loved it, she would have known that Scripture in Malachai…in my imagination anyway.
Finally, the Scripture in Malachai 4:2, it would seem, is the basis for this account about the woman with the issue of blood in the Bible, and my story. As I understand it, Jewish men wore tassels on the four corners of their garments. If there were no corners, they had no tassels. Those tassels were called the tzitzit and had a blue thread woven in called the tekhelet. The Hebrew equivalent to the Greek word for fringe or corners was kanaf, which means wings. Jesus would have had the tzitzit on the corners/fringe/wings of His garment as a Jewish man. And as Malachai referred to “the sun of righteousness with healing in its wings”, that is where the woman believed she must touch Jesus.
Thank you for reading my story! I hope you enjoyed it, were encouraged by it, and you learned something new in the process. If you have questions, or thoughts, about why I chose to include something in the story, please feel free to comment here. Or if you need to correct me, please do! I am open to learning the things I do not know.
Thank you for taking this journey with me, and with this woman. My prayer is that we all get a greater perspective of who Jesus really is.
May we all continue to grow in grace and in the knowledge of Him,
It’s Day 31 and the final day of the 2021 Five Minute Friday Writing Challenge. When I came to the end of this writing challenge, I discovered the last word prompt was worthy. The word worthy made me think about a couple of things.
First, was a scene from the television show, The Chosen. Have you seen it? There is a scene from that show in Episode 1 of Season 2 where Jesus asks the disciple John who is worthy, and John says to Jesus, “You.” I love that scene. And it is true. Jesus is worthy. There are many Scriptures that proclaim the worthiness of Jesus.
But what about people who follow Him?
So many people feel unworthy, but the Bible says Jesus has qualified us. He has made us worthy. How did it do that?
Several Scriptures in the Epistles back that up.
giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.-Colossians 1:12-14 (NKJV)
And He has qualified us as ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. 2 Corinthians 3:6(BSB)
and they will walk with Me in white, because they are worthy. -Revelation 3:4 (BSB)
And here’s something else. I think that everything Jesus did during his earthly ministry is a picture of what would be available to us through the Cross.
This is an element of what the woman with the issue of blood went through on her journey to Jesus. Maybe she didn’t view herself as worthy. And then we have the Messiah, Jesus, come on the scene and everything changes. He starts making people worthy. He deems them as valuable and qualifies them.
She was technically not supposed to be in a crowd like that, according to Jewish law. She could have rendered other people unclean. But apparently she saw something in Jesus that made her feel worthy to receive that healing from Him. What she heard about him, made her feel worthy.
What did she hear about Jesus that made her feel worthy enough to be in the crowd that day?
We can probably go by the stories that are relayed before her, especially in the Gospel of Mark, since it appears it was in chronological order. And if she lived in the region near them, it would be more definite that she heard those specific stories.
Some of the Bible stories that seemed to happen around her, and that I also included in the story, were the healing of the leper, the calling of Matthew and the banquet at his home, and the miraculous catch of the fish with Peter (who also admitted he was sinful). Other stories of healing included the healing of the paralytic who was lowered in through the roof, Peter’s mother in law, the man with the paralyzed hand, and two accounts of men being freed from demons-one in the synagogue, and the other living in tombs.
Hearing all those stories about Jesus touching and freeing people, combined with the Scripture from Malachai, and probably others such as Psalm 91, created in her a revelation of Jesus as the Messiah, and his desire and ability to free her from her illness. She didn’t feel unworthy, but brave, and was courageous enough to go out into the crowd that day and receive her miracle.
One more thing. The Bible doesn’t say this about her, but I believe that she knew the Scriptures from a little girl, so she most likely knew that Scripture from Malachai that was the foundational Scripture for my story.
But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and you will go out and leap like calves from the stall. -Malachai 4:2
Couple that Scripture together with what she was already hearing about Jesus, and the things he was saying to people, and it would have created a faith that made her feel worthy, and she would have easily received from Him. He was righteous, and was healing people, so they were receiving total salvation, forgiveness of sins, resulting in righteousness, and healing for their bodies. So, why not her?
And why not you?
The Scriptures that I have shared are just as applicable to you and I today. They are for you. He has qualified you already, past tense. She is a pattern for us, hear, believe, receive.
I hope you enjoyed the story, and it has blessed you in some way. He has qualified you and made you worthy to walk beside him in white.
“Ariella, am I doing this right?” Thomas was helping the other young students stretch out his father’s net so they could clean it after it had been used for a night of fishing.
“Yes Thomas. You are doing fine. Stretch out that side a little more. It seems a little bunched up. Mahlah can help you.”
Jairus’ daughter ran around to the left side of the net, ready to help Thomas stretch the linen fibers so they could dry in the sun.
Ariella stood with her bare feet in the sea of Galilee, surrounded by children, her students who had become fisherman’s apprentices. She was glad to be back at teaching, and thankful for the job of mending nets once again.
“My father says you are the best at mending nets he has ever seen.”
“Please tell Elijah I said thank you. And thank him for sharing his nets so I have something to teach you with. My father was a fisherman, just like yours. He equipped me with this knowledge when I was your age and younger. He taught me and my husband Benjamin.”
There was no longer pain when she mentioned him, only peace. Jesus had restored her soul, and his words filled her heart with peace the day her body was healed.
“Shalom Ariella!” Shielding her eyes from the sun with her hand, Dassah waved at her friend as she walked up to the shore. “I have been looking for you. I forgot that you would be teaching today. Aren’t you cold standing there like that in the water?”
She laughed. “Yes! Maybe a little.”
She stepped back onto the shore and dried her feet with a small linen towel. Quickly replacing her sandals she continued, “I always teach the fisherman’s apprentices on Tuesday and Thursday. The rest of the week I bake, which reminds me.” She turned to Thomas, “Thomas, as soon as you are finished stretching out that net, please go to my house and fetch the bread I am warming in the stove for your father. I told him I would bake some bread. There should be five loaves. Take Mahlah with you. She will know where to find it if you have any problems.”
“Yes, Ariella.” The children ran off toward Ariella’s home in search of the fresh bread.
Turning back to her friend, she gave her a quick hug. “I have been teaching the young Mahlah to bake, per Jairus’ request. How are you today? Why were you looking for me?”
“I have more news about Jesus.”
Ariella’s heart swelled. She loved every single time someone would share a story. Hopefully Jesus would be coming back through Capernaum soon, so she could see him again in person.
Dassah smiled and gave her hand a squeeze. Turning to walk with her friend along the shoreline she began, “It is being reported from Gennesaret that more people are being healed. They are saying as soon as Jesus arrived there and got out of the boat, people recognized him. They started hurrying about, bringing their sick into marketplaces to be healed.”
Ariella gave Dassah’s side a squeeze as they kept walking along the shore, her heart full of joy and gratitude and peace. She sighed absorbing all the good things Jesus was still doing. “He is the healer. It’s who he is.”
“There is more Ariella. You will want to hear this part.”
Ariella stopped walking and turned to face her friend.
“There are people there who are begging to touch the tassel of his garment, and all that touch it are made well.”
“That sounds like my story. It sounds like what happened to me!”
“Yes, it does Ariella. I believe they heard about what happened to you, and they came to believe in Jesus just like you. People are believing and being saved because they heard your story.”
Ariella looked back out at the sea of Galilee. The sun had risen high upon the sky and was glistening on the water. She loved the sea, and her view would always remind her of Jesus and of the prophet’s words that led her to him and this moment. Now, others were hearing, and she knew hearing about Jesus would continue for a very long time.
Beth Reavis 