"Joanna the Wife of Herod's Steward On Children " 



Jesus was never married but He was a friend of women, and He knew them as they would be
known in sweet 
comradeship. 

And He loved children as they would be loved in faith and understanding. 

In the light of His eyes there was a father and a brother and a son. 

He would hold a child upon His knees and say, "Of such is your might and your freedom; and
of such is the kingdom 
of the spirit." 

They say that Jesus heeded not the law of Moses, and that He was over-forgiving to the
prostitutes of Jerusalem 
and the country side. 

I myself at that time was deemed a prostitute, for I loved a man who was not my husband, and
he was a Sadducee. 
And on a day the Sadducees came upon me in my house when my lover was with me, and
they seized me and held 
me, and my lover walked away and left me. 

Then they led me to the market-place where Jesus was teaching. 

It was their desire to hold me up before Him as a test and a trap for Him. 

But Jesus judged me not. He laid shame upon those who would have had me shamed, and He
reproached them. 
And He bade me go my way. 

And after that all the tastesless fruit of life turned sweet to my mouth, and the scentless
blossoms breathed fragrance into my nostrils. I became a woman without a tainted memory,
and I was free, and my head was no longer bowed down.