“Thank you,” replied Kelly simply and stepped out of the door.

  “That was good,” sighed Sylvia to Carlos as they put the dinner plates away. “She needed to voice her true feelings. It’s something we all need to do.”

  “It’s interesting how some people assume we will be offended on Papa’s behalf.”

  “Yes,” replied Sylvia. “As if Papa needed defending! Papa has seen and understood our feelings before we’ve even worked out what they are.”

  “When we identify our true feelings and express them, it feels like a burden is lifted,” said Carlos, thoughtfully. “When we realise Papa is never angry with us for what we feel and think, we can let it all out and begin to process it.”

  “I was so angry at God for all the times I was abused,” reflected Sylvia. “Not that I realised I was angry at God. I thought I was just angry at life.”

  “You had every reason to be angry,” said Carlos. “You knew what was happening to you was wrong and that you didn’t deserve it. My problem was that I was numb and didn’t really feel anything for a long time.”

  “You had to learn to feel again and to allow your emotions to flow. After the Great Suffering, many of us who survived became hardened and callous inside because of what we experienced.”

  Carlos and Sylvia sat down, both feeling deeply for the people around them.

  “One day, we will all be completely free,” smiled Sylvia. “Everyone will know the truth of who they are and how good Papa is, and everyone will be able to love their neighbour.”

  “We mustn’t forget that the process is happening,” agreed Carlos. “Little by little, every day, people are learning and growing and moving towards more freedom. The God who allowed all things will redeem all things.”

  *

  Kelly tried to avoid Imelda. It made her feel worse about herself when she saw how busy and fulfilled Imelda and Dawn appeared with their clothing enterprise. She also tried to stay away from Fran, whose garden produce was clearly doing much better than hers. Fran, however, always made a beeline for Kelly to try to persuade her to let her help cultivate her strawberry plants in return for a healthy share of the crop.

  “Come on, Kelly,” called out Fran, when she next caught sight of her. “Stop being so wasteful. You know that you have the only strawberry plants in the whole village. In the whole of this world for all we know! Let me come and help you get the best out of them.”

  “I don’t care,” snapped Kelly. “They’re mine and besides, I am no gardener – never have been.”

  “That’s why I am offering. I just want to help,” retorted Fran, her frustration rising at Kelly’s resistance.

  “You know what, Fran? Mind your own business!”

  They had by now reached the end of the path and Fran watched as Kelly marched off to her cottage.

  “Arsehole!” exclaimed Kelly, slamming her front door shut. She made her way to the kitchen and looked out of her back window. A handful of juicy strawberries hung on one of the plants, shining in the bright daylight. Kelly went outside and without hesitation stamped on them until nothing was left but a jammy pulp mingled with dark soil.

  “There you go, Fran,” she muttered.

  Kelly looked down at the crushed plant. Something about the sight broke through her anger and filled her with a deep sadness. After she had lost her daughter, owning her actions was something that she had avoided. An increasing recklessness had taken hold of her, and she had used her grief and anger to excuse her behaviour.

  It was a familiar cycle: anger leading to sadness, and then a defiant justification of her actions, all within a matter of moments. But this time the sadness lingered all day. That evening, Kelly came to the painful realisation that she was feeling regret, not only for her destruction of the strawberries but also, much to her irritation, for her interaction with Fran as well.

  *

  “I know what she’s doing,” complained Kelly, as she sat once again at the dinner table with Sylvia and Carlos. “She’s trying to get her hands on a cutting so she can plant strawberries in her own garden. She’s a scheming little snake!”

  “Ok, but can I ask you something?” said Sylvia.

  Kelly rolled her eyes. “Oh, here we go! Here comes the holy suggestion.”

  “I’m not telling you to do anything. You know that’s not how this works. What I want to ask is this. What would happen if you gave her a cutting?”

  “Well, then I’d play right into her hands!”

  “Ok. But what is the worst that can happen?”

  Kelly gathered her ammunition.

  “She would always have one over on me. She’d be the one who would bring the strawberries to the market and she’d get all the glory for them.”

  “Ok,” said Carlos. “We hear your concern. But I guess we would make the gentle observation that you already have the capability to grow the strawberries and bring them to the market, but you’re choosing not to.”

  Kelly stared at her plate for a moment and then looked back up at Carlos.

  “But I can’t grow anything. I never was a gardener.”

  “Maybe in the Previous Age you weren’t. But here on the New Earth everything grows really easily, so it doesn’t need nearly as much work to produce healthy, tasty crops. You could pick those strawberries and swap them, but something seems to be holding you back. Are you sure it’s just that you don’t feel you have ‘green fingers’?”

  Kelly groaned. “Why do I keep coming here?”

  “Maybe deep down you enjoy it,” replied Sylvia with a smile.

  Kelly by now could not repress a wry grin. She secretly felt a strange pleasure in being challenged, and that was why she kept coming back. There was something about their mealtimes together that made her feel that she was making some sort of progress. When she had spent time with Jesus after being raised, she had initially been buoyed up by his evident interest and care for her. She had felt ready to grow and embrace her new life, but this had soon been quashed by being placed in a community with other women who only seemed to want to antagonise each other. But in the past few days she had begun to feel her confidence slowly returning. It was the feeling that she could grow and change, and that maybe her experience of life right now was not going to be forever.

  Sylvia sensed it was a good moment to encourage Kelly.

  “You’re doing well to keep coming back here. I know it’s not comfortable to be challenged, but you are listening and open to what we have to say. This is the way that seeds of change are planted.”

  There was a hint of lightness and a new sense of purpose in Kelly’s response.

  “Speaking of seeds, I think I might be planting some soon.”

  Exploring the Eternal City

  The fire crackled as the friends sat in a circle around it. The orange glow lit up contented faces, rosy with mulled cider. A large pan near the flames was keeping the cider warm.

  Sylvia and Yvonne listened intently as each person took it in turns to tell their story. Those gathered there would not have been considered ‘great’ in any way in the Previous Age. Tolu had still been a child when she began taking care of several members of her family who had lost their sight, but she had done so with such an unwavering selflessness that Ruach had seen and rewarded her with access to the Eternal City. Greg had checked up on every elderly person in his village for years until he was attacked and beaten up one evening for the contents of his wallet. He had died several days later in his local hospital. Now spending time in the City, the group had all signed up for a hike in one of the mountainous regions and had been enjoying the breathtaking views and each other’s company for the past three days.

  “I had never even thought about whether dinosaurs would be here on the New Earth,” said Greg, after the stories had given way to observations about the Eternal City. “I mean, it makes sense, but to see them in the flesh today was such a surprise.”

  “Yes, you certainly jumped out of your skin when you saw that sleeping Tyrannosaurus,” laughed Yvonne, “but so did I!”

  “And the way it was all curled up with a Diplodocus – that certainly wouldn’t have happened in the Previous Age,” said Greg. “I loved dinosaurs as a kid and I thought I knew all about them.”

  “That’s what the Eternal City is like,” said Sylvia. “I find the most surprising things happen here that would have been impossible before.”

  “The whole place is built on trust,” said Tolu. “That’s my observation. Nothing here happens without trust.”

  “Trust and respect,” added Greg. “This is life where all insecurity has been replaced with trust and respect. All living things honour one another. It changes everything.”

  “And yet nothing loses its distinctiveness, does it?” continued Tolu. “We aren’t all swallowed up into one mass, where we lose what makes us… us?”

  “Unity in diversity,” said Yvonne.

  By now the sky was as dark as it could get on the New Earth. The four friends took a pause from their discussion to gaze up into the sky as they continued to be warmed by the fire.

  “Those stars,” said Greg, after several minutes of reverent silence.

  “Yeah,” said Yvonne, also lost in wonder.

  “Do you think we’ll get to explore the universe?” asked Tolu. “What’s it all doing up there, anyway?”

  Greg chuckled at the awesome nature of the question. “I don’t know exactly, but it’s reminding me that I am very small.”

  “Sometimes in the Previous Age, I would feel so small and insignificant, but then when I began looking after my relatives, I realised that I was very important to them and that I could make a difference in people’s lives,” said Tolu. “Then I felt at one with the whole universe.”

  “I know what you mean,” said Greg. “When showing love became important to me, I didn’t feel so lost in the sea of existence. I felt like I belonged as I got to know the people around me. Helping them gave me such a sense of purpose and meaning. The only time I felt like my life had no meaning was when I was a young man.”

  “Ah yes,” said Sylvia. “You were saying how you went to work in the city and made lots of money, just like your dad.”

  “I made heaps of money and lost even more. By the time I was thirty I was miserable. I was divorced and convinced that all women wanted was my money. When I gave it all up and became a postman in the middle of nowhere, that’s when I started to notice the human needs around me.”

  “Wealth can blind people to other’s needs, can’t it?” said Yvonne.

  “Money can cause a feeling of entitlement,” agreed Greg. “That’s why I love the talent system here in the Eternal City. It’s just another way we can honour each other. There are no banks, because no one needs to protect their money or save it up for a rainy day.”

  “When you look at people in the various communities here on the New Earth,” said Tolu, “it’s easy to see how misguided their ideas are. I’m living and serving in a village of voodoo witch-doctors. But I can see how they’ve inherited their beliefs as they never had any experience of an alternative culture around them.”

  “So how are they responding to their new circumstances?” asked Yvonne.

  “Well, they are struggling to make sense of the world without their previous paradigms and are having great difficulty letting go of the traditions they had always known. That’s understandable. However, they do have an attitude of wanting to help others. So much of what we used to call ‘evil’ was just people’s misplaced ways of trying to do good things.”

  “Creeds certainly don’t get you into the Eternal City,” added Yvonne. “Some people have to give up their beliefs in the god or gods of their old understanding before they can begin to learn about the true nature of love.”

  “They might even have to give up certain ideas of who Jesus is,” said Sylvia. “The name of Jesus that was thrown around where I was brought up often bore little resemblance to the actual man and what he taught.”

  “But I have to say that even though I’ve met him,” said Greg thoughtfully, “I am still no expert on him and his teachings. I was a very lapsed Catholic in the Previous Age. Imagine my shock when Jesus said my faith was enough, and that my heart was in the right place. When I was raised and brought to the great supper, I honestly thought there had been a huge mistake!”

  “I don’t think anyone is an ‘expert’ in following the Way that Jesus taught,” mused Sylvia. “Often it’s about ‘unknowingly’ showing love, rather than ‘knowing’ how things should be.”

  “Intuition over knowledge?” suggested Greg.

  “Yes, and trust over certainty,” added Tolu.

  “Relationship over systems,” said Yvonne.

  A thoughtful but happy quiet descended on the camp as the stars continued to twinkle above them.

  *

  As dawn appeared the friends stirred as the sky began its daily dance of colours – a pastel palette of yellow, orange, pink and purple with every shade in between.

  The hike back down the mountain range was filled with encounters with strange and wonderful creatures. Herds of grass-eating dinosaurs looked up in unison as the travellers passed by. A pack of wild dogs ran alongside them and enjoyed being tickled behind their ears.

  The group walked down the mountain trail that led into one of the City’s more urban neighbourhoods. Tall buildings with crystalline windows for viewing the landscape of the City reflected the pastel shades of the sky. People were already busy about their day with some riding various animals along the tree-lined avenues.

  “I suppose many different animals can be used for transport, given that they are all so tame here,” said Tolu.

  “The teamwork between humans and animals has a deeper synergy here, greater than anything we saw in the Previous Age,” explained Greg. “I went to a circus once as a child and there were lions and elephants, but I found out later that they were physically abused to make them obedient. Here, kindness is the basis of the relationship with working animals.”

  “We became so far removed from nature before the Great Suffering,” said Sylvia. “We disregarded the other creatures of the Earth, and we thought so little of them. I am ashamed to think of how arrogant humans were back then.”

  “It’s no surprise to me that animals are so central to life here in the City,” said Tolu. “All creatures are loved by the creator, and we are now able to look after them and work with them in a way that reflects agape love.”

  As the friends continued their journey, they came across many wonderful examples of humans and animals living and working together. Many of the scenes were surprising and joyous enough to make them laugh out loud in wonder. By the end of the afternoon, they had arrived back at their lodgings and were standing outside their rooms.

  “Shall we meet up later for a final meal together?” suggested Yvonne, always the most socially-minded.

  “I think I will probably enjoy some time on my own just now,” said Greg. “I always was a bit on an introvert, and that hasn’t changed here on the New Earth.”

  “Of course, no problem at all,” replied Yvonne, sincerely.

  “I’d definitely like some down time this afternoon,” said Tolu, “but I’d love to meet up with you for supper. We could go to the new Greek restaurant that you mentioned you’d like to try. ”

  “I’m spending time with an old friend tonight,” said Sylvia. “The angel guides knew we had met in the Previous Age, so they arranged for us to have rooms close by one another. But I’m sure the two of you will have a great time.”

  So the friends retired to their rooms to rest before embarking on their various plans, each one delighting in a deep sense of satisfaction and fulfilment from the amazing sights and experiences they had shared together on their trip.

  Yuri: Frustration Mounts

  Thomas, Bull and Cedric the seraph stood back and looked at their day’s work. A brand new, spacious wooden cabin now stood on the mountain side. It was shrouded by trees, yet had a clear view of the community below.

  “The Hermitage,” declared Bull.

  “Sort of,” chuckled Thomas. “Somewhere to be alone, ponder, pray and rest. It’s a way of being that none of the men have ever experienced, but hopefully they might try when they see our example.”

  “What’s the situation down there?” enquired Cedric, who had been helping them with the heavy lifting.

  “They’re beginning to get organised. They soon realised that fighting was achieving nothing, and they were getting frustrated that nobody was coming out on ‘top’,” replied Bull.

  “They picked the first committee last month. Names out of a hat. The majority are willing to give anything a try just to get some semblance of normality,” continued Thomas. “It’s dawned on most of them that this is their new reality. They want to eat better and get on with making a life here. And they know it takes organisation for that to happen.”

  “They were all leading criminal gangs in the Previous Age, weren’t they?” asked Cedric.

  “Yes, so they know the importance of being organised, though this time it won’t be for crime. It’ll be for harvesting crops, processing grain, baking bread, fetching and distributing water,” said Bull.

  Thomas smiled. “Jesus knew the right mix of personalities to put together. He knew their aggression was likely to burn out once they realised it didn’t achieve anything. These are tough but pragmatic types. They understand the importance of teamwork.”

  Cedric nodded. “There are some communities that are only a handful of people, but whatever their size, the personality mix is always arranged by Jesus so that each person has the best opportunity to mature. People begin to see themselves more clearly when they see their attitudes from the Previous Age mirrored in others. My seraph brothers and sisters are always on hand to step in if necessary, but we usually find that people either begin relating better or they withdraw into a highly solitary existence. But even if they cut themselves off from others, God can use their flashbacks and memories to shine his loving light on what they need to address.”