“Remember this, friends. Life is a gift. Not a promise. This being so, not every injury, not every illness, and certainly not death itself can be healed or reversed. To raise the dead would not be a miracle, but a degradation!”

The people nodded in understanding.

“To live in harmony with the earth is to accept that death is as much a part of the Great Cycle as life. To deny death is to deny life. To claim power over death, as some do for profit, is to doubt the Tightness of the Mother from whom all life arises. Both life and death must be honored equally as each gives rise to the other. Does this not seem truthful?”

The people spoke among themselves. When they heard Jesus’s words, they understood that they had been misguided. They could now see how foolish their expectations. Why should they seek resurrection of the dead?

When Jesus finished his story, the young fisherman standing on the outside of the circle stared in disbelief. Not at what Jesus had said, but at the man himself. Jesus felt the stare and turned in his direction. His eyes fell on the fisherman’s white teeth.

“Peter!” he cried in shock. “Can it be you?”

Peter gaped as though confronting a ghost. “My God,” he gasped. The friends rushed toward each other and locked in a warm embrace. Ruth noted the insistence that passed between their bodies. The two men pulled back, blushing.

“I thought … I mean …” Peter stammered. “Solomon said that we must leave you. That you were dead.”

Jesus smiled. “Are you happy that I am not?”

Peter stood still and tried to reconcile the memory of his childhood friend with the full-grown man before him. Gazing upon Jesus’s handsome and confident face, he felt his admiration quickly rekindled. His mind returned to the day Solomon had announced that they could no longer wait for the young shepherd’s return. Peter remembered the ache in his heart that had wedged in deep, draining his world of color and meaning. Since then, the pain had never diminished.

“By the stars above!” a bystander shouted. “Is he not your long-lost twin?” Those in the crowd gawked in astonishment at the friends’ resemblance.

Peter and Jesus considered each other in the light of this new perspective. Indeed, it was true. Over time, their physical traits had grown more similar. Not just their vivid green eyes, coppery skin, and onyx hair, but the generous curves of their nose and lips. The only notable difference was Peter’s greater height and breadth. His chest and legs having thickened with muscle from his labors and the urging of his gender.