On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me
five gold rings…

The five gold rings are often understood to represent the first five books of the Old Testament—the Torah, or Pentateuch: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

These are not abstract theological texts. They are stories of beginnings and belonging, liberation and law, wandering and waiting. They tell of a people learning—often painfully—how to live in covenant with God and one another.

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.”
— Deuteronomy 6:4

The image of rings suggests continuity and connection. No beginning. No end. A reminder that faith is formed over time, shaped through repetition, memory, and practice.

In a moment when public trust in institutions feels eroded—political, religious, and social—the Torah reminds us that faith has always been forged in the wilderness, not in stability. These texts were shaped by people on the move, people negotiating fear, failure, and fragile hope.

Broken Theology resists the temptation to romanticise the law or dismiss it. Instead, it hears the Torah as a deep longing for justice, dignity, and shared responsibility. The commandments and stories arise from the question: How do we live together without destroying one another?

In a world wrestling with migration, displacement, and competing claims of belonging, these ancient rings invite us to remember that covenant is not about control—it is about care.

Faith is not static.
It circles back, again and again, to the call to love God and neighbour.

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May ancient wisdom
circle back to shape your steps—
justice held in love.