Unnamed Women: Come Step into Their Shoes

By Anita Blough Smith

Buried deep in each of our hearts are hidden placesscarred places, with unseen wounds. We try to cover them with busyness, or cast them aside as unimportant to silence their pain. But no matter what we do, they are still there.

We find brief accounts of similar suffering in the lives of several unnamed women in the New Testament Gospels. In their desperate longing for healing and love and truth, they met Jesus. Biblical glimpses of these women have now been enlarged into stories that bring these women to life. Their circumstances were different, but their need was the same.

Whether you are just beginning your walk with Jesus Christ or have been on the road with Him for a long time, take a look at these women in the Gospels in a new and fresh way. What if their stories happened like this? The wide range of their circumstances invites each of us to identify with them in some way. Each woman has a message for us today. Come and listen to what they have to say, and meet the One they found is the answer.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Aug 27, 2013
• ISBN: 9781490805412

Anita Blough Smith

Through her unique gift of captivating readers with the stories of Biblical women through “first-hand” retelling, Anita Blough Smith now awakens the journeys of two Old Testament women with her words. Her previous book, Unnamed Women: Come Step into Their Shoes, gave us a fresh new perspective on those women in the Gospels whom we know only by their circumstances. In Women of Worth Anita once again brings us into deeper reflection as we find two Old Testament women reaching out to us through time with the relevance of their struggles and pain. A transplant from Illinois, Anita has made her home in Colorado Springs, Colorado, for more than forty years.

Book preview

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Freed

Chapter 2 Proven

Chapter 3 Seen

Chapter 4 Heard

Chapter 5 Clean

Chapter 6 Found

Chapter 7 Known

Chapter 8 Restored

Chapter 9 Touched

Chapter 10 Hidden in a Parable: Steadfast

To God be the glory,

Great things He has done!

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,

because the Lord has anointed me

to bring good tidings to the afflicted;

he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,

to proclaim liberty to the captives,

and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,

and the day of vengeance of our God;

to comfort all who mourn;

to grant to those who mourn in Zion –

to give them a garland [beauty] instead of ashes,

the oil of gladness instead of mourning,

the mantle [garment] of praise instead of a faint spirit;

that they may be called oaks of righteousness,

the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.

They shall build up the ancient ruins,

they shall raise up the former devastations;

they shall repair the ruined cities,

the devastations of many generations.

Isaiah 61:1–4

And he [Jesus] came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up; and he went to the synagogue, as his custom was, on the sabbath day. And he stood up to read; and there was given to him the book of the prophet Isaiah. He opened the book and found the place where it was written,

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me

to preach good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

and recovering of sight to the blind,

to set at liberty those who are oppressed,

to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."

And he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.

Luke 4:16–21

Introduction

I never intended to write a book. However, one day I was thinking about the story in the Bible of the woman who poured ointment on the feet of Jesus. She was a prostitute, and I wondered how she came to do this daring act. As I prayed and pondered the Scripture passage, the thoughts came so clearly that I started writing. What if her story looked like this? In the midst of writing, the most amazing thing happened. It was as if I were living life from her perspective. I could see what she was seeing and feel what she was feeling… her hopelessness… her fear… her loneliness… and I was weeping for her, and with her. By the time I finished writing, God had opened my heart in such a way that it was to both of us that Jesus spoke His words of love and forgiveness. It was a moment of healing in my life.

As time went by, God brought stories of other unnamed women in the Gospels known only by their circumstances, like, the woman at the well, and the woman caught in adultery. One woman is even hidden in a famous parable. As before, I was living in their stories and feeling their hurt and pain, and God ministered to my own damaged heart as I met Jesus along with them in a new and healing way.

These women were so precious to God. He took the time to meet each of them individually and pour His love into their brokenness. Their names may not be recorded in Scripture, but their names were known to God. In the same way, He knows us. He knows each of our names and each of our stories, and He wants to meet us individually in every situation and every circumstance of our days.

I invite you to join me as we walk into the lives of these women, stepping into their shoes. I hope that you will share the journey with a close friend or two, or perhaps your spouse. Or you may desire to journal your walk with God. The thoughts included at the end of each chapter are meant to be a starting point of conversation with others and with God. However God leads you through these stories, my prayer is that God will open your heart to see yourself somehow reflected in the lives of these women and that you will experience Him in a new and fresh and healing way.

Anita Blough Smith

May 27, 2013

Colorado Springs, Colorado

Chapter 1

Freed

Luke 13:10–17

Now he [Jesus] was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And there was a woman who had had a spirit of infirmity for eighteen years; she was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her and said to her, Woman, you are freed from your infirmity. And he laid his hands upon her, and immediately she was made straight, and she praised God.

But the