A Tale of Two Tragedies Read online

of heaven. The Lord granted permission—and then the dynamics of the struggle changed.”

  —What do you mean?

  For a moment the angel cast about for a way to explain. Then she said, “Before the Lord gave his permission, the struggle was almost like a court case with no grounds, or maybe like a push fight where there isn’t any traction. But when the Lord granted permission, God’s loyal angels had grounds to throw Lucifer and his followers out of heaven.”

  Hannah didn’t say anything for a while so the dragon waited. But not for long.

  —And they did?

  “Of course. Though not without damage, and not without loss.” Hannah paused again, apparently remembering something or ordering her thoughts.

  “You see, things in heaven are different from the way things are on earth. You told me your mate was ambushed and killed by poison arrows. I don’t bring it up to cause you sorrow, but to make a comparison. No one in heaven died during the revolt because it’s not possible for one angel to kill another angel. And likewise, the things of heaven, even the simplest of things, are indestructible.”

  At that, Ackseekcelong-Sayessa was taken aback, though Hannah explained at once.

  “A chair, for instance, in heaven, is a spiritual thing. You could no more destroy it than you might destroy an angel. The chair ‘is’ and cannot be unmade.

  “And the forces of nature which are so evident on earth are different in heaven. Gravity for instance, though it’s a necessary component for life to exist in the physical universe, has no place in heaven.”

  The dragon didn’t give any indication he understood.

  “For example, the crystal sea of heaven,” Hannah waited until Ace confirmed he knew what she spoke of, “while very similar to water, remains where it is not because of gravity. It stays where it is because that’s its place. That’s its identity. It could no more float away than your earth could fling itself away from the sun. That’s a comparison between the spiritual and the physical. What should be understood is that the spiritual is more substantial than the physical.”

  She paused to add emphasis to her words.

  “When the Lord made the physical universe, he made it mimic his higher creation. He created and assigned things like gravity to the physical universe. Gravity and its laws are entirely real in the physical domain—but if I were to take gravity with me to heaven, then it would appear . . . immature or child-like.

  “Similarly, if I brought light from the physical universe to heaven, it would seem like a simulation of real light, which comes from God. All heaven is alight with his glory. I could compare his light to a physical sun, but you wouldn’t begin to understand until I told you there aren’t any shadows in heaven. Yet for all that, we are never burned.

  “Time, too, would seem like a novelty if I brought it to heaven. Life is so much bigger in heaven, time doesn’t fit. Or maybe what I should say is time is too small for heaven.”

  Hannah gave room for Ace to comment.

  He took his time before he said, —What you’ve saying makes life seem small and childlike.

  “It is!” She was being as empathic as she could be. “Remember, the word of God says earth is God’s footstool. And that he humbles himself to look upon it! Psalm 133:6 says, “Who humbles himself to behold the things that are in heaven, and in the earth!”

  Realizing that she had become quite zealous, she deliberately took a moment and calmed down. Portraying the epitome of rationality, she held a hand out palm up and said, “Look. Probably the best way to think of it is that God was creating his family when he created mankind.” She looked over at the planet and then back to Ace. The planet had almost returned to universal standard time. “After forming Adam and Eve, every living soul born into the world needed to grow from conception to an adult. This stage of creation is as much for procreation and child rearing as anything else.”

  She turned and stared at the planet, as if gazing at something about it not entirely physical. “Of course, there are other things the Lord will use this level of creation for.”

  Something about the way she’d said that piqued Ace’s interest.

  —Like what?

  Keeping her eyes focused on earth she said, “You’ve heard the word of God. Do you recall Jude saying, ‘The angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day?’”

  Somewhat with satisfaction Ace said, —Yes.

  “Those angels mingled themselves with the physical realm. Then they took wives and made off-spring. The off-spring were so wicked God had to wipe them out in the great flood. But mingling themselves with the physical realm also exposed them to the rules and laws of that dimension. That’s one of the reasons they’re held in everlasting chains. Mingling themselves with the earthly dimension gave them physical characteristics . . . that physical chains could hold. It obliged God to bind them.”

  —Ha ha ha ha ha . . . !

  She whirled on him. “You think that’s funny?”

  —Absolutely. That’s Divine justice, if I’ve ever seen it.

  Hannah looked as if that was the last thing she expected to hear from him. If that wasn’t enough, the next thing he said revealed a discernment she hadn’t expected.

  —But the unchained free demons still plague the earth.

  “There you go again. How do you know that?”

  —When you give me a clue that big, it illuminates a considerably larger picture.”

  “Yes, I suppose it would. As you’ve said, you’ve spent a long time learning the Devil’s tactics. But it’s still impressive.”

  —Thank you. But I would prefer the knowledge of how evil works to be something I didn’t have to know.

  “Well put, my friend. I agree with you. There wouldn’t be any evil or sorrow or pain anywhere if Lucifer hadn’t rebelled against God.”

  —I tend to think the great evangelist Billy Graham put it right when he said, It’s God’s way of letting evil destroy itself.’

  “Easy to say. Not so easy to deal with when one is within its sphere of influence.”

  —But think of believers. They’re born into it. They might not like it, but they know they’ll win gloriously if they don’t give up.

  “Redemption’s triumph. Glory to God. But it’s still sad. I’ve often thought that the reason so much damage and destruction happens on earth is because it couldn’t happen in heaven. As if Satan is taking out in the earth what he would have liked to have done in heaven.”

  —So he couldn’t destroy anything in heaven?

  “Correct. Even though they would have liked to, the rebels could destroy nothing as they left. While things on earth decay and may be destroyed, things in heaven are indestructible.”

  —Then how was there damage and loss?

  Hannah took a big breath and let it out. “All of us were tainted when Lucifer tricked us. Not only because of what he did, but also because of how he did it. After that, the only one worthy to open the book in the right hand of him that sits on the throne became Jesus.

  “But I said what the angels suffered is worse than what the dragons suffered because if only several were murdered, countless billions wouldn’t have been lost in the rebellion.” Hannah bowed her head, as if shame had suddenly accosted her. Without lifting her eyes she said, “If only several were murdered, all might have not been disgraced.”

  Then she implored him with her eyes. “I know it sounds uncaring, but the dragons only lost three of their members and the offspring that would have followed. We lost a third. On top of that is the fact we will always remember he tricked us, and when he tricked us . . . he defiled us. The damage in heaven is one in our hearts, because we remember how it felt before defilement came. There is something different in every angel’s heart that none of us can deny. Something specific died that day. Or to be more exact, it was murdered.”
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  —I thought you said nothing could be destroyed in heaven?

  “I did. But this wasn’t one of the material things of heaven. It was a tangible living force within the heart of every angel. Each of us had it. It was a gift the Most High gave to each and every one of us. We were to nurture and train it. It would accompany us in our eternally walk with God and make our lives that much more enjoyable.” Hannah turned away from Ace, unable to go on.

  She gazed at the planet that was quickly returning to universal standard time. Putting her mind on Walker allowed her a moment to forget what felt like a dagger twisting in her heart. Walker’s study of the lobes must be nearing completion. She wondered what the study had been like. What had he learned? How would it differ from what she knew? Of course she knew she’d eventually have the answers to all her questions. But there was also the aspect of things men could understand that were obscure to angels. Would it apply to the lobes? And how far into the future had he looked? She could think of more questions, but knew was just stalling for time. She had to finish telling Ace what had happened. Letting her thoughts return to the subject at hand, it was like the knife twisted in her heart again.

  “You see, when Lucifer tricked everyone into worshiping him, we did so by faith. We believed that he would return our adoration to God. We placed our faith in him because we had no reason to believe he would harm it. But he betrayed our faith. When he led us to believe he