The Journey

Once upon a time, that time being the beginning of World War II, a baby boy was born on the steps of a white hospital in a small town in Kansas. This baby boy – his name was Winston – never knew his father. His father was killed at Pearl Harbor.

Three years after Winston's debut on the planet and his father's exit from it, his mother married another military man. As a part of a military family, the boy traveled from state to state, school to school, and country to country. He grew up lonely. Never in one spot for long, he hesitated to make friends. In fact, he did not know how.

One midsummer evening when the boy was sixteen, he took a walk on a narrow path adjacent to the runway not far from the base housing. He was crying. As he kicked rocks and pebbles to the side of the path, he talked to himself. He talked also to God, whom he considered his best friend. As he walked, the air became strangely chilled and breezy for a midsummer night.

"God, I thought you loved everyone. If you love us so much, how come life is so hard? I've been lonely all my life. I'm fat. I get bad grades in school. Whatever side of the tracks I stand on is the wrong side. And it's not just me that feels the pain. It's all over the place. My family travels a lot, and there's no place that seems much better. I've seen people living in poverty. I've seen people who are prejudiced against other people. I've seen people hurting each other. Millions, many of them innocent, languish in prisons. It's all so unfair!

"If you really do exist, Father, please help me. At least let me know that you're there. Give me a sign. Give the world a sign."

The weather began to change even more rapidly. The moon turned the color of burgundy wine and started to spin slowly, like a precious stone being examined by a jeweler.

"Father, I'm trying to believe. Is this you talking to me? I'm trying to listen."

The wind hummed through the branches, and Winston was sure he heard a deep whispering voice talking to him.

"You are not alone," it said into his ear. "Through your pain, you have been conditioned since birth. You will do great things someday. You have been prepared for your destiny, as your son and his son after him will be." The wind rose in pitch, and the boy grew chilled.

The voice began to fade, and Winston walked home slowly. The loneliness moved in again with the silence. At home, he closed his bedroom door and cried.

In heaven, the Father was summoning an angel to himself. Though he could slice through galaxies at immeasurable speed, this angel took his time. His was a leisurely flight. He paused at a planet to watch the sun rise over its edge and butter its atmosphere with pale yellow. The color reminded him of the gold of heaven, and he continued on his way, musing that some humans no longer believed that heaven's walls were gold embellished with jasper, sapphire, topaz, chalcedony, emerald, aquamarine, amethyst, and a host of other precious gems. He had always suspected that the Father had buried such treasures in the ground on the planets to remind those who looked down of the shimmering clarity of the heavens.

"The heavens," he spoke aloud. "Heavens! I've been summoned, and here I am dilly-dallying," He continued his flight with more haste.

The glow in the distance became the colored sparkling of the heavenly walls, which gave way to the white sheen of the pearls that covered the twelve gates. As the angel swiftly approached, the gates began to tremble and clatter. Startled, the angel stopped and hovered outside.

"Father? Is that you?"

"Do not be afraid."

"But why do you meet me at the gates? Have I offended?"

"No, good servant. Our business demands haste."

"What is it, Most Loving One?"

"It is time for your sending and another's receiving. Two rivers must join and flow together for a time, one heavenly and one of the planets. You are the one."

"And the one I shall visit?"

"He is an inhabitant of one of the planets that still tolerates disharmony."

"Which planet?"

"Go now. Make haste."

"But, Father ..."

"Trust your wings, worrisome one. They will take you where you need to be."

"Father ..."

"Does the river inquire of the sea? It simply flows according to its own nature and thereby arrives. Do likewise. Go now."

So the angel prepared himself. He coated his wings with Borazon lest the journey be long and chafe them. He closed his eyes and let himself be. He turned to the left with a mysterious assurance and began to fly. In his mind's eye, he saw a blue planet girded with white clouds. Still deep in space, he heard the faint clamor of frantic lives on that planet. He veered toward a small star and watched as it grew to fill his vision. Closing in, he glanced to the side, and there it was, the blue planet. Now inside the star's solar system, he paused in an orbiting belt of asteroids and dust. His vision and hearing penetrated the clouds around the planet, and a shocking display of earthly reality assaulted his heavenly mind.

Sifting through the grunts of life from the surface, he heard the angry shouts of nations and the explosions of war. He felt the disharmony, and tears began to run down his cheeks.

He saw rockets being launched into orbit and across imaginary borders on the planet's land masses. He watched as families split apart. He saw murder, theft, and a host of other perverted acts all across the planet. He could see truth scattered among the lies, but most overlooked it. Just as he was about to shake his head and fly on, he heard a familiar voice above the din. It was God's voice. Here and there he was speaking quietly to many people. Some listened. Some spoke aloud of what they heard and were ridiculed or sent to institutions by those who did not believe them.

Others ran from the voice of God. Some ran back to their day-to-day ruts. A few heard only a little of what the Father said and tried to turn it into power to quench their greed and bring them wealth. When they gained nothing, they reached for more. Others ran into the fog of alcohol and drugs where they tried to hide. The angel saw that many chose the wrong path out of fear of the truth.

Exhausted, the angel began to doze off. The meteor against which he had been leaning suddenly rolled out of its orbit, startling him awake, and began to plunge into the earth's atmosphere. The angel hung on for the ride until the meteor burned itself out in the upper atmosphere.

Up close, the planet was the color of milk and honey. The angel began to circle it in a slow flight.

From his position, he could see how many people had trouble balancing their lives. He saw homeless people using the sides of buildings and curbs for urinals. He saw the broken bottles, colored shards so unlike the gems of heaven,...