Dear Friends,

This week part II of “David”
(you can read the first installment here)

In the Garden

The next morning King David’s concubine awoke to the sound of servants pouring hot water into a bath, setting a small table with figs and milk and opening the curtains. After she bathed and ate, the servants dressed her but there was no sign of her King. She stepped onto an adjoining balcony that looked over the palace rose garden. She heard someone entering the bedchamber. Her heart leapt, could it be the King? She felt his strong arms wrap around her as his voice proclaimed, “Oh beautiful daughter of Naphtali! My hear pounds, my strength fails me when I look upon you.” He turned her and looked into her eyes. She replied, “Thank you my King.”

“How would you like to go to the sea this morning? Long I have pinned for a companion of your beauty and I must say… you are my favorite.” The young girl blushed. “I was actually wondering if we could go down to the rose garden this morning, my Uncle is the palace gardener.” King David walked her over to the edge of the balcony and pointed down at the rose garden and the mosaic depicting his latest victory. The King put his arm around his concubine; “Most mornings I take a walk in the rose garden and see your… uncle is it?” The girl nodded. “I want to go some place special with you.” The girl stepped toward the doorway and pulled on one of King David’s hands with both of hers. “Just being with you makes me feel special great King, I would really like to see the roses this morning, and maybe my uncle!” King David conceded and began walking with her through the palace toward the rose garden on the lower level.

“What your uncle’s name?” The King asked. “David.” She replied.

David the gardener had slept like he hadn’t in years. He rose early in time to watch the coal black of night warm to a brilliant crimson. The blood red light played on the mosaic floor in the rose garden depicting King David’s recent "victory". In truth, the King of Israel was a murderer, adulterer and tyrant. The gardener bent down, and whispered an old saying to a dying blossom, “The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day”. He cut the blossom off the rose bush and looked to the King’s window. A servant drew back the curtains as he made his way into the shadows on the south side of the garden, against the north palace wall.

David the gardener was perfectly positioned behind a couple large rose bushes. Every morning King David came through the east gate into the rose garden and stopped at the second or third rose bush, plucked a rose, handed it to his current concubine and told her she was his favorite. As the gardener knelt down between the two bushes and cut back three or four buds he caught two silhouettes in the light pouring through the east gate. King David and his concubine were almost to the threshold of the garden. The gardener’s hand dropped to grab his chosen weapon, a simple spade, but his sleeve was caught on a thorn. He jerked and a thorn pricked deep in the palm of his hand. His tunic was stuck too! He tried not to call out or move.

The King and his concubine were through the east gate facing directly south, their backs to the hidden gardener still caught on a thorn. King David leaned over the second rose bush and plucked a beautiful blossom for the young girl. Time seemed to slow. No sooner had King David’s mouth formed the words, “You’re my favorite,” David the gardener lunged to break free of the two bushes and went sprawling on the mosaic, his bloody hand landing directly on King David’s likeness in the mosaic. King David laughed as he leaned down to help the gardener up, “I’m afraid the rose bush has beaten you my friend.”

David the gardener now had his chance, as King David grabbed his free hand to help him up he would drive the spade right under the King’s chin. The gardener pushed himself up onto his knees, one hand out for the King’s and one clutching the spade. Then he noticed the concubine, the one who was supposed to be from the tribe of Dan, if the palace gossip could be trusted. It was his niece Dinah.

“Uncle, you look frightful!”

In other news:

Last month we were featured in a Producer Spotlight interview in Collide magazine!!!

Recently John and I partnered with the live performance group One Time Blind on a series of 5 short videos and one of those videos, “The Stool”, is up for Collide Magazine’s Reader’s Choice Awards Best of 2008!

Check the whole collection out if you get a chance, they are being received very well and “The Stool” has hit over 30,000 views on God Tube in a matter of one week!

Illuminating Understanding,

The Cinematographer
Stewart H. Redwine
C: 310-770-0448
E: sredwine@36parables.com