Matthew

My name is Matthew.

I have always known numbers better than people. Numbers

make sense; they don't lie or twist themselves into knots like

human words. They stay where they are supposed to, fixed and

measurable. Unlike me.

You might know me as Levi, the tax collector. Or perhaps as

the one no one would touch, not even with a whispered prayer.

That's fair. I've been called many things in my life, most of

them true. But none of them prepared me for what happened

the day He called me.

I was sitting at my usual station on the road to Capernaum.

It was a day like any other-or so I thought. The sun blazed

overhead, baking the dust into a golden haze that clung to

everything. Merchants grumbled as they emptied their sacks

of grain and coins onto my table. I counted it all, meticulously,

ignoring their glares