The Flight

Part Three in the series, My Summer Vacation2010.

After receiving communion, I thanked the priest, then Juan Diego tugged at my shirt. “Come, the plane is waiting for us.”

“Okay, but where is it?” I replied, as he led me deeper into the empty field. The air was cool and thin. I could smell a hint of hemlock and pine sap so I closed my eyes and took a deep breath to smell it better. When I reopened my eyes, to my surprise there was a small plane in front of us. The hatch was opening, and then the stairs came down.

“Follow me” said Juan Diego as he climbed the stairs.

Once inside, a lovely blond stewardess greeted me and hugged Juan Diego. The plane was full of passengers but the front row was vacant.

Another attendant ran up to us, “Hurry up! We have been waiting for you quite some time; we should have left eons ago.”

“I know, I know” replied Juan Diego, “but these humans have no sense of timing. We’re ready.”

Inside, the plane was strangely quiet. As if he read my mind Juan Diego said, “They are praying and preparing themselves for the journey. You should too.”

“But where are we going?” I asked.

“Where do most people go on their summer vacations?”We’re going to visit family, immortal family.”

“Wait a minute; I don’t think I’m ready for this!” And to myself I thought, ‘Get me out of here!’

“Well, get ready! The Boss wants you on this plane.” Don’t worry you’ll go back, this is just a vacation.

Dear God, please help me.

Relax, I won’t expose you to more than I think you can handle. I never have.

True, but what am I doing here? Who are these other people?

They are aspiring immortals that are going to visit the second level of reality. This is not a dream, or fantasy or even that hyper-imagination you see in the movies. You must open your mind and heart wider; quiet yourself and trust Me. You have had practice, now apply what you learned. This vacation will prepare you for the eventual loss of your blood-filled body.

I wondered if God meant that I would see my mother and father again. Then I thought about the rich man in hell who asked Father Abraham to send Lazarus to warn his brothers and how Abraham said that a great chasm had been fixed so that no one can cross from heaven to hell, but he didn’t say no one could go from life to life without passing through death. I wondered what my immortal family would look like.  Then I realized that trying to imagine the near future was a waste of time. I had to open up, to be able to receive the experience. Open up. I think that meant I had to be prepared for super-reality; I was about to see a spectrum of light and sound that isn’t possible for mortals.

While penetrating my soul with these thoughts I was shaken by the resounding boom of thunder and a burst of white lightning that sent shivers of terror through my body. I grabbed Juan Diego’s hand and held it tight. Oddly, the fear reminded me of the many times the Lord challenged me to trust Him, when we had no money to pay our bills, when we lost work that we desperately needed, when we were tossed out of rental homes with nowhere to go and no money to pay for the next house or the move. In my mind, I reentered the moment when after years of disappointments and struggle, I finally I realized that I could let go of my haunting anxiety. Not because bad things would stop happening, but because it wouldn’t kill me if they did; no matter what happened I would cling to the Lord. He couldn’t shake me.

Deep in thought, I hardly noticed when Juan Diego left and another sat next to me. The switch finally registered, so I turned to look at the man with a flowing long beard and deep green eyes. He looked at me waiting patiently for acknowledgement.

“Hulloo, my name is Elijah the Tishbite from Tishbe in Gilead.” He said with a thick accent.

“Elijah! What are you doing here?”

“I am the pilot. The Lord chose me because I too never died, just lek my passengers. I must hep prepare first-timers to overcome the knee-jerk reaction to dramatic change. Some have experience, such as sudden death of a loved one or an accident, others dunt. Opening to God’s vill is ability to pass through the fog and through the fire. Your experience was in a different area of trust, you must be able to translate that; get ready. The storm was for practice.

 I must get back into the cockpit now. This is your big chance; don’t panic.”

I was still so stunned by Elijah’s presence and his message that I didn’t even acknowledge Juan Diego’s return, or notice that the thunder had stopped. Everything was still so quiet when once again I heard the sound of Elijah’s voice, saying:

“Stewards, prepare the cabin for landing.”

Road Warriors

If you are reading this blog for the first time during Lent, you should be aware that you have entered a story that overlays the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt to the Promise Land with the Journey of Aspiring Immortals to the Kingdom of God that is on the new immortal Earth. The parallels are striking. The Exodus can teach us Christians some very important lessons about attitude and relationship. For more about this comparison go to Exodus II explained. The series began with Two Wait for Lent.

Ben and Asa could usually be found walking side by side, chatting enough to become oblivious to their sore feet and hunger. Each morning as they set out, most of the pilgrims positioned themselves in the same quadrant of the moving mass of humanity that traveled to a dirge-like rhythm in gender segregated groups of families and tribes. Infants and toddlers swaddled in cotton cocoons dangling from strong female shoulders. God’s swarm of speaking bees intuitively knew when it was time for quiet so they could listen for approaching enemies.

But that wasn’t now. Few clusters were talking about anything besides their thirst, some complaining, some squinting into the distance for a river or even a pond in Olympian competition to be the bearer of the good news. It had been three full days since the last drop of water cooled a parched tongue.

“Mama.”

“Yes, David, my child what is it?” answered Zeporah with refreshed amazement at every new word that emanated from the miniature lips of her three year old baby.

“Why doesn’t anyone ask God to make water come out of these rocks for us?”

“Yes David, rocks we have, water we want. How clever you are! Don’t we always ask God to give us the exact opposite of what we have? If we have sickness we ask for health. If we have doubt, we ask for faith. If we have worry, we ask for trust. If we have war, we ask for peace. We have rocks, now let’s ask for water. My pure one, how could the God of our fathers deny you? You be the one to ask.”

“Mama, will you ask Him with me?” Spotting a nested boulder David ran over to it and climbed on top to wait for his mother to join him. Letting the others pass, the woman and the child set out to relieve their fellow voyagers.

“Okay David, I will begin. O’ Lord, who is teaching us with this journey to trust you, to depend on you for every life sustaining element, hear our prayer. I thirst.” Zeporah then nudged David with her piercing green eyes to follow her lead.

“Lord, you made us to need water,” David hesitated searching for the right words to say from his limited vocabulary “and you are pushing us to the good land. Why do you wait for me to ask? Is it because you want to show me that you are the God who hears? Hear me. I thirst.”

Zeporah and David bowed their heads, small tender pink hand clutching her big rough hand. Suddenly David let go and ran over to pick up a straight stick that he spotted in the brush. In less time than it would take to sneeze, David was back on top of the rock. He looked up into the heavens, then straight to the passing chattering throng, then behind him to the oncoming masses. Meanwhile, Zeporah slid off the rock. David lifted his little hand as high as he could and with all his might he struck the granite boulder. Once.

A geyser of the sweet, clear life-giving drink, shot up a good seventy feet from a crevice that David’s unlikely tap made, into the air and returned raining on the giggling boy with the cool refreshment of answered prayer.

Ben and Asa, who were just approaching the scene were among the first to rush over. After looking up with mouths wide open to receive the life- renewing water, and after a few hefty gulps, they quickly became self appointed crowd control officials.

“Oh Lord who provides! How patient you are watching us suffer all this time, deliver us from our own impatience and self reliance.” whispered Zeporah carrying her little savior-child away from the dense epicenter to make room for their thirsty brethren.