The three men looked around in amazement. They stood at the back of a small church filled with beautiful wood pews and floors and stained glass windows on each side. There was no apparent way in or out except for two doors to the right and left of the stage area. Two steps across the front of the stage meant that from anywhere at the front of the church one could step onto the stage. There was no podium on the stage but from where they stood it looked like four patches of ground.
“Weren’t we just in a car?” Steve asked, breaking the
silence of the room.
“Ya” replied Joe and Karl whose eyes were still taking
in the room.
Karl took a step forward and turned back to face
his two friends. “I don’t think this bodes well for us making it to Indy before
4.”
None of them said anything but they all wondered if
this meant they would make it back home at all.
The three turned their attention to the front and
began moving in that direction with full but measured steps. Karl in front with
the other two behind. Once they were in front of the pews they spread out and took
the final two steps toward the stage. Sure, enough, there were four different meter-long squares of ground on the stage. Each man looked at the other and then at the
ground. The square furthest to the left was very clearly hard-packed ground,
then came one with rocks filling the soil and a few stunted plants, the third was
filled with knee-high weeds so think Karl wondered if you could even step in
it. The final plot of ground looked rich, and the tops of perfectly cultivated
wheat were just high enough to give the ground a smooth carpet of green from
the sight angle.
“Mark 4, the parable of the Sower” Joe stated.
“Ya” the other two agreed familiar with the parable.
“What does it have to do with us?” Steve started to
ask but from behind them came a blazing light.
The three started to turn around but the light was so
bright they had to turn away causing them to fall to one knee and use their
hands to keep from falling over. In the turmoil, Karl’s hand fell on the edge
of the weed-covered ground. Though overwhelming the light gave off a sense of life
and peace, the weed-covered ground filled Karl’s hand with the exact opposite.
He couldn’t pull his hand away fast enough as it seemed to him though he knew
it couldn’t have been on the ground for more than a second. He focused on the
hand for a moment, knowing he would see it diseased and frail but to his relief
it was normal.
Karl began to look back toward the light and saw in
the eye of Joe a figure coming out of the light and the light dimmed quickly.
“Stand up, don’t be afraid. I’m your guide for this
moment.” said a full deep voice from the figure they still couldn’t completely
make out with their eyes still adjusting.
The three stood and faced what appeared to be a priest
in a white robe and stole.
Karl thought the guy may have been dressed like a
priest but looked like he could have been more like the huge African-American
Sergeant he was trained under in the Marines. The one difference was this one
would have won if the two had fought, the other major difference was that the Sargent
would have never been called angelic.
“Behind you are the four soils from the parable you correctly
identified. Consider carefully which one is right and step on it and you will
return to your earthly bodies.”
The three turned and looked at the patches of ground and
then at each other. Each could see the other was thinking, what happens if we
choose incorrectly?
They weren’t sure how long but after a few seconds or an
hour Steve couldn’t be sure the angel behind them said, “Steve, why don’t you
lead the way.”
Steve turned to the angel, and then to his friends. “I
know what the right choice should be, but when I look at myself, I know which
is more honest.” Before anyone could do anything, Steve took a step onto hard-backed ground on which nothing would grow and disappear.
“And you Joe?”
Joe nodded and without saying anything stepped onto
the ground covered with stones and disappeared.
Karl stared. He knew these men as well as anyone. Steve
may have been a hard-hearted person long ago, but he was the most tender-hearted
one of the three. Joe was the last person Karl would have called shallow. The
roots of his faith and his knowledge of the Bible was also the greatest of the
three. He was confused but as he looked at the soil, he knew which represented
his heart. He had filled his life with everything, and though he had tried to
change he didn’t feel as if he had done enough.
He started to move toward the weeds but paused and
looked back at the angel a thought filling his mind. “I really was hoping to
see, you know this being,” he pauses unable to say a death experience. “What it
is.”
“Your wife?”
Karl’s wife had passed a year earlier but Karl shook
his head, “No” But then Karl paused thinking that it felt wrong to say he didn’t
want to see his wife, but it wasn’t who he had been thinking. He knew she was
alright.
The angel nodded and said, “Oh, Jesus. I should have
known. I can tell.”
Karl nodded.
“Step onto the ground you were heading for, and you
will.”
Karl turned toward the ground and began to step forward
but turned and faced the angel with concern etched across his face. “I’ll die on
earth if I step there won’t I?”
“Yes, but you will see Him.”
Karl looked toward the grass and then back. “I want it
but if God has something more for me to do, I don’t want to make the wrong choice,
like I have in the past. If me going back is better than I’m willing.”
The angel could see the look on Karl’s face and shook his
head. “I have been assured it’s not the wrong choice and your friends will be
okay.”
“I know, God will take care of them.” And with that, he
turned and stepped onto the ground filled with weeds. Everything changed around
Karl and now instead of standing on weed he stood on a gorgeous hillside and
then he saw the smiling face of Jesus.
The angel saw what he had with the other two. The soil
changed when each placed their foot upon it. The soil became rich. the ground
filled with growing grain. Except for Karl’s grain on Karl’s patch, it was full
and ready for harvest.
The angel shook his head, “A hundred-fold that one." The angel looked up and said, "They never do judge their hearts right, but the humble never do."
Photo by Debby Hudson on Unsplash
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