“He is a good man,” Eira said with a catch in her voice. “But it is so hard not knowing what has happened to him.”
Sigrid came through the door and went to her loom. “Hello, Kaarina,” she said.
“Hello Sigrid,” Kaarina replied politely.
Ever since Landwulf had left, the girls had been guarded whenever Kaarina was around. She missed the fun and chatter of the early days of getting to know each other. Those were the days before her world had fallen apart. Still, she was hoping that Sigrid or Frida might answer the questions she had about their God. Since she’d started to pray to the Christian God, her curiosity about him had grown. What was he the god of? Surely he had a job or a role like the Norse gods. Was he the god of war or fortune or prosperity? Or something else? And why would they pray to him for comfort? Kaarina decided to be direct about her questions. Surely the Christians wouldn’t mind talking about their God.
“May I ask you a question, Sigrid?” she asked the pretty blonde girl as she sat at her loom.
Sigrid looked surprised. “Of course.”
“I want to ask you about your God. What is he the god of? War? Prosperity? Or something else?”
Sigrid looked thoughtful. “He is the only God we believe in,” she said. “So He is the God of everything. We believe that He created the world and that He loves the people in it.”
“Loves them?” This was news to Kaarina. She’d never heard of a god that loved people. Most gods ignored mortals or demanded sacrifices as appeasement.
“Yes. He has a son that He sent to this earth.”
“I thought you said He was alone.”
“We believe that He and His son are one. Kind of like the two faces of a coin.”
That made sense, so Kaarina moved on to something else she’d thought of. “Why did the son come to the earth?” she asked. “Where did he live before?”
“He lived in heaven, in the sky. After they created the earth, they intended that it would be governed by their laws, which cannot be changed.”
Kaarina was familiar with the laws of the land and figured it worked something like that. “So what happened? Why did he need to come to the earth?”
Sigrid paused, thinking about how to explain her story in a way that Kaarina would understand. “Things went wrong on the earth,” she said. “There was an evil foe and he caused the people of the earth to break the laws of God. The penalty for breaking the laws was death.”
Kaarina gasped. “This God sounds harsh,” she said.
“There’s more to the story,” Sigrid said. “I’m getting to the best part.”
“Tell me,” Kaarina begged.
“This God was sad about what had happened on the earth. He did not want all the people to die. So he and the son came up with a plan. The son would go to the earth and die as a substitute for the people and the father would accept his life for theirs.”
“But why would they do that?”
“Because they loved the people. They did not want anyone to die.”
“So what happened?”
“They carried out the plan. Jesus, the son, came to the earth and died. Then he was able to offer his death as a gift to anyone who would accept him in their place.”
“I can’t believe a god would do that,” Kaarina marveled. “Who is this gift for? Christians?”
“It is available to anyone,” Sigrid said. “All of us need it. None of us can keep God’s laws on our own and death awaits us all.”
Kaarina thought about all the times that she had done things that she knew were not right. “I like this God of yours,” she said. “I think I will continue to pray to him.”
She couldn’t stop thinking about a God who loved her instead of ignoring her or harming her if she failed to do what he wished. It was a difficult concept to understand but she was determined to know what made the Christians different from her own people. She was certain that their God had something to do with it.
“Sigrid!” Kaarina called as Sigrid walked up to the family’s vegetable garden. “Wait! I’m coming to help you!”
Sigrid waited until Kaarina had caught up. Since Kaarina had expressed an interest in the Christians’ God, their friendship had changed. They were closer and Sigrid shared more.
“I wanted to ask you something,” Kaarina said.
Sigrid grinned. This was how their conversations usually started. Kaarina was hungry to know more about their lifestyle and their faith. “Ask, then,” she said.
“Why did your people come to this land?” she asked. “Was it something to do with your faith?”
“I was born here in this land but my parents came here from Alemannia,” Sigrid replied. “You are right. They came because here they can freely practice their faith.”
“Why could they not practice it in their homeland?”
Sigrid paused, trying to think of an answer that would make sense to Kaarina. “It became difficult after the rulers of the land banned worship on the seventh day. The first day of the week is the official day of worship.”
“Why does it matter? Could you not just worship on the first day?”
“We believe that it matters to God. We follow the example of Jesus and the apostles in worshipping on the seventh day.”
“Oh. That makes sense, then,” Kaarina said. If the Christians’ God required a particular day for worship, why would anyone argue with Him?
“So
