The Paradise Walk
I had been told he was the only son. I even forgot who told me about him. Everybody seemed to know, except me.
All I knew afterward was that I had been walking. All around me was darkness. It was my white shirt that brightened and lightened my way.
White has never been my favorite color. But I like it. I believe it is because white means purity, light and cleanliness, at least to me.
It made me wonder why of all colors, my shirt had to be white. A short sleeved plain white shirt I paired with my blue jeans and white shoes. Anyway, where I was at the moment, it helped.
I kept walking on an imaginable road. For below my feet, there was only darkness, and everywhere. As if I was in outer space. Though in outer space or the universe, I was taught to believe in the presence of stars, planets, galaxies, and more.
So no choice but to keep walking. To my own surprise, I wasn't even afraid. When the invisible presence of Covid 19, the pandemic of 2020's, stirred fear in everyone's veins, but not mine. In my walk, I felt nothing. Maybe just plain curiosity. That's all. I kept walking.
Suddenly I heard a call on my name. It was from behind me. I turned around and I saw a beardy man dressed in a fishing net. He was standing inside a big, wide opened sliding door.
"How come I did not see it when I passed by?"
That was a question to myself.
"Because it wasn't opened."
The beardy man answered my question.
I was three steps away from the corner edge of the opened door. The man was standing in the middle of it.
"Where are you going?"
He asked me a question I could not answer. But something had crossed my mind.
"I was told he was the only Son."
These words were all that occurred to me.
The man laughed a soft, refreshing sound to my ears.
"He lives here."
He told me as he signaled with his hand the inside of the place he was standing on, which to my sight was just full of a mixture of colors. I could not figure out where they come from or made up with from my standpoint.
"Come in."
The man invited me in. I was surprised.
"May I? Really?"
With wide opened eyes of excitement, I responded to the man with a question.
"You are invited."
He told me so.
"Very well then. Thank you."
As I stepped inside, the different colors I saw from the outside took their forms.
"I am inside an immeasurable, big, enormous garden where in the middle is a house beyond measures!"
My eyes have revealed to me the amazing view of the place. If my eyes could take the size of the moon, I say it had done so.
"Wow!"
It was all I said to the beardy man clothed in a fishing net. He tapped my shoulder.
"You are in Paradise."
He said so.
" I am dead, you mean?"
I asked him. He laughed again. This time was really amusing.
"No. You are just wandering around."
He responded and then walked passed me as if to guide me around. I just followed him.
The place looked like the earth's ground when you walked around the forest. There were trees, fruitful trees and more. Some writer's descriptions of nature, the beautiful nature they testified in their writings, were all confirmed in the place. Even all kinds of flowers, birds and animals were everywhere. I felt and imagined myself in Africa. Then I laughed at the thought. I only have seen Africa in books and movies. I have never even wished to be there. But then, I felt like I was there.
There was only one thing that could be different.
Every little thing, everything in the place had a special shine on them. They all looked like a piece of jewel, a piece of gold. But not the gold color. Maybe it was just the feeling. The impact of the place on my senses.
I touched a leaf, a green leaf of a plant. As I placed two fingers to it, I felt a flow of a refreshing water inside me. I realized I was thirsty. So I touched more.
The man kept walking in front of me without saying a word. I just followed. I hoped he did not realize I was touching things without asking permission.
"Whoever is invited inside, does not need any permission."
He turned around to tell me so as if he had read my mind. I was in panic. I felt like a thief being caught.
"We don't invite thieves inside, so do not feel like one."
With the smile disappearing from his face, the man turned around again and continued walking ahead, after saying those words.
I tried to calm down. Shook my head as if to send away negative vibes. As I did so, the man turned sideway to give me a wide smile.
"Don't worry. You aren't dead. Just wondering around. Though lucky enough to be invited inside. It was all because you were searching for the Only Son."
His mention of the Only Son led me back to why I was walking around. Though I wasn't sure how it all started.
"Speaking of the Only Son, where is he? Who is he?"
I asked the man. So he stopped walking, faced me and in a blink of an eye, the mansion was already close to us. Behind him.
I looked up at the tall and wide structure which my eyes could only see up to where my cornea permits them to reach. Far beyond seemed to be more in length.
I wanted to reach for words to describe it but I was so overwhelmed I was speechless. I was full of amazement and indescribable admirations of everything around me.
Slowly, as I lowered down my look from the top, my eyes landed to see a form. A human form standing behind the waist length front of a balcony. He was looking far away, ahead of him. I followed his look. His attention was on the outside of the place. To the darkness outside. I closed my eyes to see his face better, but I could only see a white cloud human form.
After a while, I realized the whole mansion was of the same color. White like the clouds on a clear sky that was playing its colors between white, light blue then white again like the soft cotton. Purity! There I found the word.
As the word "purity" entered my mind, I shifted my look to the beardy man. He nodded and smiled at me.
"Who is he?"
I asked.
"The Only Son."
He responded.
"What is his name? He has a name?"
I inquired again.
"Yes. He is called Jesus."
The man answered.
I heard about Jesus. The Only Son. The son of God, as believers say. But I admitted to myself, I never really knew him. So I asked another question.
"He has parents?"
The man took a stand beside me and put his left arm at the back of my shoulder and led me to walk around more. We moved again in front of the house as we talked. The garden was so big but when I looked at the house, I could still see it and the human form.
"Yes. Just like everyone else."
He assured me.
"Where are they?"
I asked without thinking.
The man stopped walking and faced me with both hands on my shoulders.
"Learn about Jesus. He himself will tell you everything you want to know."
He advised me with a smile looking straight at my eyes.
I wanted to continue asking questions when suddenly we saw the house doors were opening. Flashing colors of yellow gold and white were coming out from the inside, reaching till the garden's main door. Slowly, the garden door was opening.
I looked below the lights and noticed small rocky stones formed like a walk way from the house to the main door. The small stones were jewel stones! Different colors and kinds I have never seen. I was mouth opened, full with admirations.
I looked around us as I found ourselves standing on the right side of the walk way lane. Around us and everywhere in the garden were full of human formed clouds on their knees and head bowed. I could not see faces but golden rings on top of their heads.
"Who are they?"
I asked my beardy guide.
"The servants. We are all servants."
He answered me as he led my look to the one coming out from the house. From the inside and outside, everywhere, a song was heard with a glorious "Hallelujah!"
My attention was called by the many dove formed clouds on top of our heads. I could only see wings, big white wings. In the middle must be heads or faces or something but so hard for me to figure out.
"What are they?"
I asked the man.
"The angels."
He responded as he turned his head to answer my question then looked back again to the house's door. He kneeled as the human form who was at the balcony before was then coming out with three more like him following behind. The man with me bowed his head. So did I. I kneeled and bowed down my head as the four of them passed in front of us.
As they passed, I wanted to lift up my head to look at their faces, but to my surprise, I couldn't. Had I stiffened my neck or became a stone, I could not tell.
As soon as the main door closed and the four of them were gone, all around us became like it was before when I first entered. The mansion house looked far and all around us a beautiful garden.
"Who were the three behind the Son?"
I dared to ask more questions as we both got ourselves back to our feet, then finding ourselves in the middle of the garden.
"The three following the Son were Gabriel, Raphael and Michael."
He responded. While in my thoughts I was asking myself who they were, but kept quiet.
"They are the principal angels of heaven as you called it on earth. I tell you such in accordance to people on earth's understanding. If you search more, you'll know more."
As if reading my thoughts again, he gave me a tap on my shoulder. Then he started to lead me back to the main door.
"I have to go?"
I inquired with sadness. He smiled.
"The owner of the house, the Only Son, you're looking for is outside."
He responded.
"I understand. If I want to know more, I follow him."
He nodded and I agreed with him returning his smile.
The main door got opened again. He gave me a hug.
"Go in peace."
He blessed me kindly.
Before I stepped a foot outside the line of the main door, I turned around to ask something. One more I said to him. He agreed.
"Why did he go out to the darkness?"
I asked at last.
"To shine the darkness with his light."
He said so as he looked up into the dark past over my shoulder. So I turned around to follow his look. I did not realize I made a step outside the main door. Fortunately I was able to shout a "thank you" before his face disappeared as the door closed. He nodded and smiled. The man beardy and clothed with a fisherman's net has a golden ring on top of his head too.
I faced the darkness again as the door turned dark as well. In front of me was like an endless movie screen. I felt myself as if being inside a movie theatre.
On top the sky, a dark night, was a shining star. A light. Down below I saw the earth. The humans on earth. Before me ran the story from the birth of the Only Son, said to be the newborn Savior. Then as the story changes, the three angels that came out with him were mixed with the earth's people. They looked like ordinary people. But it seemed no one recognized them. Me neither. All I could see were some round golden rings in many parts of the earth, placed on top the heads of many faces.
Then I closed the curtain of the theatre as I finished a chapter from the book I was reading.
Reading the New Testament, the messages of the Only Son, the Christ himself, I have wished myself to be in Paradise. I did. I had it. The Paradise Walk, and I believed to be with one of my favorite disciples, Peter the rock.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."
That verse of John 3:16 runs itself in my head and heart.
Feeling good learning about Jesus, I took a pen and wrote praises for Him. And shared to others how it felt getting to know about The Only Son. The Son of God in my Paradise Walk.
