I Am Miryam

By Mary Heyn

This is the story of Mary, the mother of Jesus, and our mother, told from her viewpoint. This is the story of a courageous young first-century Jewess who was chosen by God to be the mother of our Savior, Jesus. All Scripture references are from the Jerusalem Bible. It is written in simple words with love, for I too am a child of Mary because her son is my brother, who shares his very life with me.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 13, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543428858

Mary Heyn

Mary Heyn is a retired Christian elementary school teacher with a love for words, a love for God and people, and an active imagination. She desires to share her faith with others and prays that lives are transformed and new hope is born.

Book preview

Chapter 1

The Early Years

I am Miryam. You may call me Mary. What a wealth of memories I hold, and how eager I am to share them with you because my precious son wishes it! My earliest memories are of the scratchy beard of my abba Joachim as he held me close and sang the songs of my people in my ears. They were the sweet songs of David, usually followed by the stories of Father Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the great Moses who led our people out of bitter slavery in Egypt. With them I remember the tasty fig pudding my amma, Anna, fed me, along with fresh bread, sweet warm goat milk, goat cheese, savory soups from her cooking pot, and the fresh cool water I watched her draw up from Nazareth’s well. In her lap I first learned to love our great God and to take pride in belonging to his own people.

Shortly after those days my life suddenly changed. I was loaded into my abba’s wagon and taken with my family on a great adventure. How excited I was when I first saw the majestic Jerusalem rising in the distance and approached God’s own holy temple! I walked bravely with Amma into the women’s court. I heard the priests intone the same sacred songs that my abba had sung. Imma held me close. Then a kind and tall woman took my hand and told me I could stay with her. I wasn’t so sure I wanted to! Then I heard the wagon roll away and found that my family had left me.

I wept for a while, but the women who surrounded me were so kind! They carefully fed, bathed, and dressed me just as my imma had done. I soon noticed that there were other girls with me. We got acquainted, made up games, and played together freely every day. We were called together daily to learn the sacred songs and the old stories that I had already begun to learn on my abba’s lap.

The days, months, and years flew by so quickly! God was very gracious to me and I learned new things every day. Then, one by one, my childhood friends began to leave. I was told that they were becoming women and were soon to be married. Before I knew it, my time had also come. My abba and my imma came