The Lover's Parable Through A Seven World Journey
Page 44
From the highest levels of its atmosphere, John was witness to the engulfing of the entire Red Sea and the mountainous regions around it. Floating further away from him, Planet Red became deformed and mutilated, twisting and contorting, like dough in a baker’s hands, until it fragmented, drifting within the emptiness of space towards the Savior, its fiery end.
The light of the Great Star was intensifying, but it was not so bright that John could not look into it. The worlds that encircled it fell from their orbits, dropping as leaves drop to the dead grass in the autumn air. Planet Raw rolled by, seemingly an arms length away, allowing John to pass above the surface of its fracturing flatlands, to lay his eyes upon the shattered remnants of its military installation, to glimpse the end of the misery of Basket Town. Its trajectory was on course with Red: a place in the burning pyre at the center of life.
The velocity at which the other planets were traveling towards him was too wonderful for words, yet terrifying in the glory of the power of the Savior. Planet Blue exploded into an immeasurable display of dust and glittering particles before being lit up with the brightness of its destruction in the Savior’s awaiting arms.
The screams of the selfish men and women of Golden could be heard for a final, brief moment of time, before being suddenly cut off as it fell into the ocean of fire.
Like the splitting shell of an egg, a circumferential fracture line sent Black Island’s shroud of mystery to its death, leaving Black Heart exposed for the first time. Gliding ever so slowly to its scorching finality, it melted like a candle and evaporated into fine mist.
Having consumed the seven worlds, the Savior had become the sole body of the heavens, a mass of purity at the heart of the universe. No more would mankind be allowed to destroy itself. Those days were gone forever.
A new planet, fashioned after His essence, clean and bright, emerged from the blaze of glory, stretching out from the Savior’s surface, full of the lands of green and plenty, filled with abundance. It is a world fit for His dominion.
As if the invisible chords holding John in place had suddenly been cut, releasing him from his stationary point floating in space, he began to freefall towards the newly created sphere. The rushing sensation of falling was exhilarating, liberating and eternally satisfying to his being.
As if all his sensations of the material world were being granted a return, like dipping into a warm bath, John entered the atmosphere of planet Rest. Falling gently towards the surface several kilometers below, his heart was lost to his terrible past, and created anew.
A wonder of sights and sounds came into his mind as he was renewed in spirit. The land began to take on a sudden energy of life as the trees of the forests individualized, and the beauty of the City of Light came into view. Living among its marvelous structure of golden glass, the masses of those granted with life became more distinct with each passing moment. The beasts of the fields were living harmoniously with the peace of the age. The wars were nonexistent, the hatred gone and the love of man prevailed under the veil of the Light of the World.
A grassy knoll, hidden within a valley of lush green, surrounded by towering mountains of inviting soul, was the setting in which a mother and her child had been guided, brought here to await John’s arrival.
Sofia was alive, youthful and innocent, as in the days of their Savior gazing. The brightness of life was falling upon her as she cast her blue eyes to the skies above. Behind her, among a grove of trees, the child, so full and energetic, climbed and played.
Calling to him, Sofia pointed towards John, directing her child to look upon the formations of cottony clouds above. He immediately ran to her side, gazing into the vastness of the heavens. His smile was like hers: joyful and content. John wondered if they were able, somehow, to see him, as he had no material substance of which to speak.
As he neared the surface of the planet, Sofia and the child drew near, and the grass began to part, exposing the deep, rich soil beneath.
At a distance from which his toes should have been able to reach it, the dirt arose in twisting spirals, like a rising plume of smoke, forming the bones and the cartilage, the muscles and the skin, of his legs. His spinal column began to take shape, wrapping about his organs with his ribs, his arms and his chest plate. Covering over by the guidance of the light, the flesh was renewed, unscarred, regenerated in purity.
As his skull took form and his eyes welled up in his sockets, his external features were newly refashioned. He was as he had been so long ago: innocent.
John’s eyes opened and he drew in his first breath. Sofia was there, waiting for him as she had always said she would be. She and the child ran to him, wrapping her arms around his neck, holding him tightly. Embracing his son for the first time, John finally looked into his little boy’s eyes. They were like looking into tiny windows, and seeing the sky beyond.
The New World was eternal, its marvels and wonders so vast and expansive. Citizens of a new age, John and Sofia were now free to wander where death and darkness were no longer permitted. They were strangers and foreigners no more. Mr. Sanders was there with his wife. John would one day meet her, but not today. As with Stephen and Maryanne, he and Sofia had an eternity to converse with them. But, this day was meant for each other… and their child.
A streak of light, like that of a wishing star, fell from the heavens, disappearing beyond the cordillera in the distance, a glancing blow at the side of Sofia’s eye. She turned to John with an inquisitive expression, a twinkling of curiosity.
“Did you see something?” she said, with a hint of adventure.
Placing his hand gently upon her cheek, John turned her face away from the mountains and back to him.
“No,” he said, shaking his head, “I didn’t see anything.”
Taking her by the hand, they turned their backs to the path of the mysterious light, content with the love that their life’s adventure had finally brought them.
They were home. Home forever.
The End