Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: Rest in His Finished Work 8/13-8/20/26 (08/13/26)
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TITLE: Rest, a Monologue | Previous Challenge Entry
By Laurie Kiel
08/20/26 -
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Rest.
My search for rest began over 12 years ago.
I was pregnant with my second child. My first child, a boy Yosef, was a year old. I decided if this second child was a girl, I would name her Salome, peace. For I so needed peace in my life. My Yosef was so unruly; my baby in the womb was so unruly, I never got any rest.
After Salome was born, I held her and rejoiced. My baby had come; my rest would come.
PAUSES
Or so I thought.
I knew from my son that babies bring sleepless nights. But I expected rest to come someday.
But someday never came.
But the bleeding did.
After Salome was born, the bleeding began. I told myself it would stop soon; the uncleanness would stop soon.
But it never did. It went on for days,
Then weeks
Then years,
Years of uncleanness, Years of isolation. Years of whispering behind my back.
No rest from my affliction.
No rest from the rejection by my husband as he divorced me and took my babies.
“You are cursed by God,” he told me. “My children need a mother who is clean.”
SLOWLY WITH SADNESS
And he left me and married another woman.
I saw them in the marketplace sometimes. My husband would look past me as if I wasn't even there. And to him, I wasn’t. After all, he didn’t talk to dead women, and I was dead to him. Dead in my supposed sin. For I must have done something to deserve such uncleanness.
No rest for my aching heart, my arms aching to hold my children.
No rest as I went from doctor to doctor.
Until at last my money and my hope were gone.
No rest from the hopelessness and heartache.
And then..
And then..
SMILES AT THE MEMORY
Hope walked back into my life, all wrapped in a Jewish rabbi.
I KNEW that he could heal me. I KNEW it! If I could but touch the hem of his garment, I KNEW he would heal me
For 12 years I had been unclean. For 12 years, I had never had the touch of anyone. I pushed through the crowd, not caring how wrong it was for me to bring my uncleanness in their midst.
I flung myself to the ground and reached out in desperation. There! I touched the hem of his garment. I felt the power; I felt the healing. My bleeding had stopped. And then Jesus turned and asked, “Who touched me? I felt power leave me.”
Panic coursed through my veins.
Trembling, I fell at his feet and confessed. I told him my story. I told him of my unsuccessful quest for rest. I tearfully told him of my healing.
And I waited.
And gazing at me with eyes of liquid love, He told me, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.” Luke 8:48 NIV.
Peace. Shalom, just like the name of my daughter Salome, whose birth began it all.
Peace that brought rest.
Rest from rejection.
Rest from seeking cures that didn’t exist
Rest from hopelessness.
And because of his finished work, I could finally
rest
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It was a blessing to think about and an encouragement to us all as she found hope in her hopelessness and so did we in our hopelessness.
Amen! Hallelujah!
Keep writing for the glory of God!