Watching from the Shadows: Through Eyes of Passion, 24 Biblical Women Tell Their Stories

By Edna M. Gallington and Elizabeth Bird Norton

Edna Gallington gives you an intriguing glimpse into the lives and emotions of the women portrayed in this book. She is a weaver of poignant stories that jump off the page and make you crave a deeper experience with the storyteller. She has the ability to open the hearts of these women, sit with them, as it were, and share their innermost thoughts. They cry out to you to engage them and allow your feelings to be lifted to the heights of literary emotion. In a word, it is as if the author could share their lives, their secret feelings, and their dreams.

Reuel A. Minton Industry Publishing Cherished stories you will return to for strength and inspiration. Dramatic stories that will lead your heart on new adventures. Enlightening stories that give you empathy for biblical women in a new and endearing way. Beautiful, dramatic portraits. A gift that inspires, uplifts, and entertains.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jul 30, 2010
• ISBN: 9781449702533

Edna M. Gallington

After a career in public relations, Edna Gallington has put aside deadlines and is enjoying writing creatively. During these years of writing news, interviews, and coordinating workshops, she found time to author several hundred pithy devotional articles and childrens stories that have been published internationally in magazines and books.

Book preview

Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

On a Rainy Friday Evening

Bathsheba, the Desired

Lot’s Wife, the Lingering One

Leah, the Rejected

Rachel, the Betrayed

Rahab, the Curious

Hannah, the Longing Mother

Ruth, the Beloved Poet

Temple Girl, God’s Own

Delilah, the Betrayer

Deborah, the Brave and Strong

Abigail, the Gracious Woman

Esther, the Beautiful Queen

The Prodigal Daughter

Gomer, the Reluctant Wife

Anna, a Woman after God’s Own Heart

Woman at the Well, the Seeker

Glimpse of a Stranger, the Forgiven

Forgotten Woman, a Touch of Faith

Jairus’ Daughter, a Miracle

Mary, the Listener

Martha, the Organizer

Pilate’s Wife, the Silent Observer

Mary, the Mother of Jesus

Mary, the Adoring One

The Author

The Artist

Acknowledgements

Many people helped me bring this book together. I deeply appreciate each of you for your encouragement and patience, and for the tireless hours you spent working with me. You are truly my friends.

Linn Norton McClellan, adopted daughter of the artist

Reuel A. Minton, business partner/art portraits

Jonathan Reed, cover design, graphic designer for Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and for Wildfire Ideas

Sylvia Clark, creative editing and insights

Jocelyn Fay, editorial review/copy editing

Janet French, creative editing/promotion ideas

Joanne Nightingale-Andrus, Nelma Fennimore, Vera May Schwarz, and Sarah Walsh, friends who provided fun and insights

Toini Harrison, my college professor

Roberta Moore, a college professor who taught me how to write and asked, Do you realize how special you are?

Ellen Morse, copy editing

Judi Nelson, creative editorial comments

Kit Watts, who through the years honed my many articles

Tama Joy Westman, my writing mentor

Halcyon Wilson, my pastor, who gave me much encouragement

Florence Littauer, who offered me learning experiences in CLASSeminars

Wallace, my husband, whose love and emotional support I treasure

And to God, who kept His promise.

Introduction

No legacy gives a picture of how biblical women felt about their experiences—others wrote their stories. They kept them in their hearts, to relive again and again the emotions they felt.

But what if we could have found their journal, or even a note here and there? How would they have recorded those special moments that gained for them a place in biblical history—their encounter with God?

These stories were not easy to write. Rather than taking a historical viewpoint, I wrote from an artist’s viewpoint: part fact, part imagination. I tried to put myself in each woman’s place, experience her joy and feel her pain. Tears often blurred the pages as I wrote—tears of hurt for Mary, the mother of Jesus, at the cross. Tears of joy stung my eyes as Mary heard Jesus call her name after the resurrection. No words can fully describe these experiences.

I am in awe of the beautiful sketches of the biblical women the artist so lovingly portrayed. Many of the women’s eyes harbor sadness, but they believed in a God who makes things right, One who, as the Old Testament prophet Joel says, restores what the locusts have eaten. This God is Watching From the Shadows of our lives to eventually bless us, and that is what God’s love and grace is all about.

Writing their stories, seeing their lives through their eyes, has brought me closer to God, who loved each one of these women with the same love he has for you and me. One thought stands out: many of the stories have happy endings—Jesus’ resurrection, the birth of a desired child, a rescue in spite of impossible odds, or a homecoming at last.

Jesus honored women. He revealed himself the first recorded time as the Messiah to the woman at the well. The first person to see and greet him after his resurrection was a woman. It is as if he is telling womankind, you are accepted, forgiven, redeemed, and deeply loved. The Messiah came through the lineage of several of these women—Bathsheba, Rahab, and Ruth.

My hope is that you too will share my inspiration and joy as you linger to observe the women’s expressive eyes, look into their hearts, and imagine how they might have scripted their stories.

—Edna M. Gallington, author

On a Rainy Friday Evening

This book came together on a rainy Friday evening as I lingered at an exhibit of 24 paintings of biblical women on display near my hometown. I paused beside each picture, captivated by the emotions revealed in the artistic eyes of the women, eyes that spoke directly to my heart. As I stood there, I wished the artwork could be placed in a book that I could take home to treasure and to enjoy again and again.

Aware of someone beside me, I turned to see a friend, who also was observing the artwork.

These pictures are awesome! I exclaimed.

I own them, he replied. I felt my breath catch.

Have you thought of putting them in a book so more women can view them? I questioned, feeling the excitement of the moment.

I waited, trying not to appear too eager—even though I was. After thinking a moment, he acknowledged that it just might be a good idea.

May I write the stories? I blurted out. It was all very much on the spur of the moment. That night I went home to write the story of Bathsheba and e-mailed it to him. Thus began a partnership to bring this book to you.

But the story doesn’t begin here. Even in my teens, I enjoyed putting myself in the sandals of Bible characters, especially women, and writing their stories. Through the years, many of my devotional stories were published, but I kept the first-person women’s stories in a folder, for my eyes only. One exception was Glimpse of a Stranger, which was published in a youth magazine when I was in college.

The story of the artwork goes back