0129

"If what I have heard is true, Sol, the Lord has chosen you. You are a special child. You have a great purpose," John Paul said, as they entered the boarded up bell tower.

"JP, I don't understand what you mean."

"Sit," he said, pointing to a simple wooden chair.

"I can't sit on that chair, or any in this room," Sol said.

"You are too modest. I believe you can sit anywhere you like. Besides, the Lord makes all things, not just the furniture in this room."

"Yes, but he doesn’t have his son build all the furniture with his own hands. I will sit on the floor."

"Sitting on a rug sold to me by Mohammed is less upsetting than sitting on a chair sold to me by Jesus Christ?"

"Mohammed didn't make the rug."

"A small point of difference."

"No, for me, it is the difference."

"I disagree, I think the difference is that you do not follow the beliefs of Mohammed."

"Yes, that is the important difference."

"He was a humble carpenter when I bought these from him. You could see the greatness in him even then. It shined from his eyes, his finger tips, the ends of his hair.

"Every word he spoke was... was Godly. I will never forget the time I spent with him.

"You know, he didn't recoil from me. He didn't hate me. He knew the moment he saw me what I was. But it was O.K. Every time we met I felt a great peace. A calmness.

"He told me that God made all that there is in life and in death. That we each serve a purpose. That we all fit into the plan. We all have a calling.

"He said we may not always like what we are called to do, and many chose not to do what he wants of them, but this does not change the plan.

"When I saw him alive for the last time, before he left to start preaching the word of the Lord, he told me that God was with me.

"I couldn't believe it. The Son of God telling me, a demon spawn from hell, that God was with me. I followed him at a distance and watched him rise to prominence over those three years. I watched him fulfill the scripture with my own eyes.

"But the Jews in power wouldn't see. They were more concerned with power than with God. I wept by his grave when they placed his body inside. I vowed to come every night and weep for our savior, my savior.

"And I did. I can't begin to tell you what I felt when the stone shifted. I stood in awe as he walked out. Sol, I alone, the spawn of the most evil, the child of the angel God himself cast out of heaven, saw as the stone moved and Jesus walked from his grave.

John Paul grabbed Sol by the shoulder and said, "I saw Jesus Christ rise from the dead."



[Copyright Reuben Gregg Brewer, 2005. All rights reserved.]
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