Warned not to look back, Lot's wife stumbled through the desert, exiled from the place and people she loved. Mile upon mile, one trudging step after another, she carried a heavy heart until she could no longer bear the pain.

She turned and looked back at what she had left behind. Not a fleeting glance. Not a momentary peek. A long, sigh-filled, heart-broken gaze.

As she stood there, motionless in her grief, the desert sands twirled around her, enveloping her in a deep crater. She sat down and wept. She cried till the water from her eyes pooled in a puddle, then a lake. And she drowned in her tears.

Days later, the arid winds carried her tears to the heavens, leaving a salt-encrusted body in the earth.

Mary R. Ingram