This Is the Way

As Jill began playing in her mother’s living room one day, she heard music floating in through the window. After standing up to try and see the source of the music—she could not—she skipped off and out the kitchen door in pursuit of the music’s origin. Jill was permitted into her neighbors’ house and could finally see that it was Ina, the mother of her friend Rosabeth, playing the violin beautifully near the living room’s fireplace. Jill spied a girl called Annabel playing a board game at the opposite end of the living room and asked if she could join in.

The game was called This Is the Way, and the object is to collect as many Deliverance Coins as possible. You get a Deliverance Coin each time you cause the Seesaw of Sight to become balanced, and it becomes balanced only when two contradictory statements are placed in the seesaw’s opposing chalices,  which seems to defy physics, as the chalices differ considerably in weight.

Jill was chosen to go first, and she placed the card she drew in the much heavier chalice after reading, “The brothers of Joseph were still afraid Joseph would get his revenge on them after Jacob died.” She thought a bit and then in the much lighter, opposing chalice she placed the answer she’d written: “The brothers of Joseph loved Joseph and were thankful for him.” After a couple seconds the lighter chalice began sinking until the two cups were level.

Now it was Annabel’s turn, and her card read, “Joseph was sure God was going to bring all of Israel’s descendants back one day to the land He promised them and so made his brothers swear to bury his bones there when they went.” Annabel looked exasperated at first, but then her expression lightened as she wrote her answer, paused to erase something, and wrote her final answer: “Joseph wasn’t sure if God was going to bring all of Israel’s descendants back one day to the land He promised them and so stayed buried in Egypt forever.” The chalices were balanced.

Jill was truly enthralled by This Is the Way and in fact kept it all her life.