“It was so melancholy.” Nehemiah said. “As a little one I couldn’t handle the pain in her voice. I walked away.
“When I got older, she started to teach it to me. It’s what you call Psalm 137. And I understood why she waited. The end of it talks about Edom and Babylon. In one of those sections you never read, the song talks about tossing infants…never mind.
“And of course, this wasn’t about her own life, exactly. She had learned the song from her father who learned it from his father. But it was his father who had lived it. Who had watched the siege of Jerusalem. Who had watched the temple burn. Who had seen the infants killed.”
He stopped. I waited. I had not expected this.
Nehemiah was a book to me. Something I would read five chapters of in a day while reading through the Bible in a year. But sitting across from me was a real person. With a history. With a story.
“Growing up, many of us sang the songs of exile. We listened to the stories of the prophets who warned the people of the danger of ignoring God, of becoming gods themselves. We knew the exile was a result of not paying attention to the warnings. And we learned the pilgrimage songs, the songs of ascent. Songs about the annual journeys to Jerusalem, to the city of David and the city of God. To the Temple. Even though no one knew exactly when we’d need them again, we learned them.
“And then the exile was over. We could go back.
“The first groups were hopeful. They were going to the homeland no one knew. A generation went. Work started on rebuilding. And then there was another wave. We had watched the Persians conquer the Babylonians. There were stories about starting and stopping, stories about the temple.
“Eventually, my brother went to Judah. I had a good job in the palace, but I was so proud of my little brother, so thrilled to have a connection. And we waited to hear about the great work, the restoration of the city.
“One day my brother showed up unexpectedly. But that’s how everyone showed up back then. Unannounced.”
More tomorrow
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Reflecting on Nehemiah 1. Taken from A Great Work: A Conversation with Nehemiah for People (Who Want to Be) Doing Great Works.
300 words a day 