ALIVE: Chapter 66 Be Like Me

It was pow-wow time in heaven. Making Israel rest on the Sabbath gave the angels a break too. “What’s next My Lord?” asked Gracefeld with Perambula looking most attentive. “I’m afraid we can’t keep them away from other tribes much longer; there is bound to be some fighting.” added Gracefeld.

“We can take care of that, I have a bigger matter to deal with.” replied God.

“Bigger than annihilation of this nation? Pray tell, what could that be?”

“Since I expelled Adam and Eve from the garden, I have wondered why they were so easily lured away from Me? If Adam was made in My image and likeness, why didn’t he think like Me, or behave like Me? Why didn’t he trust Me?”

Perambula quickly interjected, “How could that slimy serpent ....”

But before Perambula could finish the sentence God said thoughtfully, “As disappointing as it was, seeing how evil the human beings easily become makes me shudder. It is as if they gravitate to unlikeness, to counterfeit Me. I was so very angry during the days of Noah, but I see now that it makes no sense at all to annihilate them when they will bounce back to an opposing willfulness time and time again. But I refuse to admit defeat.”

Gracefeld spoke up, “I don’t see why you need to deal with humans at all. You have us my Lord, and puppies.”

At that God smiled lovingly and simply replied, “Matter matters to Me angel, and as for the puppies and all of animal life, I know you were joking. Besides, I like the challenge. I formed them physically, and now I must form them spiritually, I must form their souls in such a way that they cooperate willingly, but that will not happen in one day.”

“It was so lovely in Eden.” sighed Perambula, “I rather miss it.”

“Remember, you weren’t there Perambula!” retorted Gracefeld.

“Well, I miss the place I think of it as! That’s good enough, and my longing is real!”

“Gish!” murmured Gracefeld.

Ignoring the angels’ banter God added, “I made Adam and Eve in My image and likeness, with a mind and a heart, a will and emotions that are relational to their situation and surrounding to allow them to exercise their intelligence and creativity. It was like forming the dependent infant body that could someday walk and run on its own. Without a reason to walk and run, without the practice of it, the body would be stymied.”

“Well, they walked and ran right away from You, my Lord. And I don’t see after all these years and all these experiences, them walking toward you much.” added Gracefeld.

“Yes, they have walked away from Me long enough. Slavery molded them, but also warped them. At this point their ignorance not only offends me, it hurts them. It is time for us to teach them what I like, we need to tell them exactly how to be like Me, by making very clear what I want from them. I will use their minds to instruct their hearts.

They will be My people when they know Me, as best as they can, and want to follow my commands. There will be no excuse, as with Adam who was given only one command, these people will be given ten times that. My commandments will be clear and simple. I must remember that I am leading children, unschooled ignorant slaves who are driven by their appetites and by their fears.”

Gracefeld asked, “But Lord, You wrote on their hearts, in their conscience the difference between right and wrong. I saw You do it, it was amazing to me. These beings know intuitively the difference between good and evil, between kindness and malice.”

“Yes, but I see that humans are shrewd and sly, even to themselves, they can override and pervert what is written in their conscience. They must have both, a clear command and insight. More importantly they must know Me. Since Jacob, Israel, I have not made myself widely known. It is time for Me to engage this nation of mine for whom I have great plans. Someday, I will walk among them as Adam walked in My Garden.”

At that subtle but shocking announcement Perambula and Gracefeld blurted out in unison. “My Lord! How can You do that?!”

God smiled condescendingly at their reaction of shock and calmly replied, “I must do this. Among all of humanity, this nation is singled out to know Me, to follow Me for the sole purpose of being the nation into which I will become incarnate.

I am the only One who can restore immortality to humanity. Those who willingly become My Children, must be immortal like Me. I despise death. The days of Noah repulsed me like no other. I must release the captives of Hades. I can only go there to release them if I am human and die.”

A gasp as loud as thunder radiated from these spirit beings, so loud that the sound of their gasp surprised both of them. Butterflies on earth shivered, owls flew for cover, little mice dove into holes recently dug. Even the air quaked in the upper atmosphere with alternating flashes of heat and cold.

“Why does that surprise you so my friends?” inquired the Lord. Not certain if the angels were more shocked by His announcement that He would condescend to become human, or that He would die, He chose to respond to the former.

The Lord was aware that from the days of creation angels felt threatened by humans. They had much in common. Angels and humans are both intelligent but the fact of human materiality confused and troubled the angels at first.

Dear reader, let’s pause here to understand why Perambula and Gracefeld were appalled at the notion of God entering a human body. First admit that the composition of a spirit being is foreign to you.

Try to understand the existence of angels, those spirit beings, by imagining the immaterial warmth of love and joy. The scintillating eruption of an idea or a thought before it becomes a word. Imagine the essence of peace, its stillness, its delicate nature and how vulnerable and threatened it is by sharp and fierce hatred that forces itself upon peace to extinguish it in the air.

Contemplate that ethereal world, that world of pure spirit, not air. Denser than air, like aroma laden air, but holier than aroma, sacred, untouchable. To further distinguish spirit from matter, imagine peace entering a rock, or joy entering a tree in winter, imagine love as fire. Imagine sheer intelligence occupying a whole mountainside saturating the earth with its brilliance like gold dust scattered deep in earth, protected by pebbles.

Hold that thought and now try to understand how absurd it seemed to angels for intelligence beyond words, emotions beyond tears to become manifest in an animal form. The angels were as shocked by the creation of personhood in an animal’s body, man, as you would be to see that tree outside your window walk away, or the sun doing somersaults.

God made humanity, unique from animal, with the form and biology of the mammal but with His Spirit, the ability to create, to love, to think, to speak. He did this to make a fractal of Himself in matter so that then He too could materialize. He could enter His creation. What artist among us doesn’t desire to enter his creation, Michelangelo in David, Dali in his Last supper, Mozart in his requiem?

How can God be divine and human simultaneously? He can if He simply retains the powers over nature which He gave to Adam. Nothing is impossible. Nothing is impossible. Nothing is impossible. God made humanity for its dual nature with His divinity. 

For Gracefeld especially, it was less astounding that God would separate from the body to go to Hades and release the dead captives to restore immortality, than that He would become a human in the first place.

During this most unusual conversation Perambula and Gracefeld came to comprehend the brilliance of their God as never before.

“My Lord?” said Perambula sheepishly.

God smiled, knowing what Perambula wanted to say. “Can you make me human too?”

“Yes” replied the Lord to the joy and amazement of the angel already packing itself for the journey into form. “But I won’t.”

To remove the sting God added, “I have made My own laws of nature. The immutable laws of nature require a complex genetics of the human from two parents to form the being. The being is not pre-created and then placed into the body. The body and soul and spirit of the human are carefully woven together with each individual. My dear Perambula, how can I say this? “You are too old to be born. You know too much.”

Perambula quivered with instant grief, but added with as much meekness as the angel could muster, “Aren’t You too old My Lord?”

Not offended God replied, “I have been working on my genetics from the day of Adam. I have carefully planned my parentage, one person and one generation at a time. I have even chosen my mother who will not grace the earth for hundreds of years of time to come. I have been working on My own contribution as the Father of Me as well. This is a wholly unique situation, never to be copied, never to be repeated. Can you understand why an angel cannot be born a person dear Perambula?”asked the Lord with compassion, and without waiting for an answer added, “I’ll make a deal with you. From time to time you may be as human in the form of an apparition. You may even appear solid. You can appear to humans to be helpful to them, but you won’t have a real life.”

Hearing that Gracefeld quickly asked, “Me too my Lord?”

“Yes, and spread the word to the thrones. But these must be very rare occurrences and typically unrecognized by the humans. Is that clear?”

Thrilled by the notion that they could appear, both angels cheerfully said in unison, “What will we do for your nation today?”

God replied, “Tell Moses to meet me at the top of Mt. Sinai. And he is to tell the people to fast and prepare for My appearance to him. Now be off, I have to prepare myself for this meeting!”