In a continuation of the discussion about my book, Rebekah Redeemed, I’d like you to meet Rebekah’s father Eleazar. He is a shepherd who tends flocks with his cousins in the fields near Bethlehem. What sets him apart from most of the others in this part of Judea is that he saw the bright star in the sky the night Jesus was born. He heard the angel tell the frightened shepherds to seek out the newborn baby in the manger. He heard the angels sing.

I invented the rest of the story when I asked myself these questions:

– What might have happened to one of those shepherds and his child later in life?

– Would the shepherd’s child know that Jesus was that same infant her father saw at birth when Jesus was teaching in the fields of Judea as an adult?

– What might have happened if that shepherd’s child had met the adult Jesus under adverse circumstances?

I chose to make Eleazar a loving father to his daughter who taught her about a loving God around their campfire at night. Rebekah experienced this example of a loving father figure early in life to remember as she grew up, even when all the other figures in her life treated her quite differently. I wanted to use this as an underlying theme in the book to represent what I believe are the most important traits of a redeemer, both in a minor key with a relative who wants to help Rebekah escape slavery and in a major key with Jesus working to save all mankind.