Paradise World
Page 48
Chapter 37 - From Here Towards Eternity
As I am writing these words, five blissful years have passed since Jenny's resurrection. And we still have an eternity ahead. Already in that short time, many other wonderful things have happened. For one thing, the population of Deer Park has almost tripled, purely due to the steady flow of resurrections each month, although all from the same faith, and all either relatives or close friends from our existing community. It is not the Great Resurrection of peoples of all the nations, creeds and ages, but we are still in the very early stages of the Millennium.
Meanwhile, Jenny and I have now our own house, and outside our bedroom, I hear the sound of a child playing with his dog. The dog is Cory, and the child is Simon, our Simon, a lovable blue-eyed, fair-haired boy that has filled our lives with even more joy, in a life already filled with incredible joy.
Let me explain. On the day I had died, Jenny had already been pregnant, although neither one of us had known. Just over six months later, a premature, three and a half pound infant was born. Then, six days later, he was dead. However, two months after Jenny's own resurrection, little Simon arrived, this time healthy and strong. How proud I am to be a father, and how much love and attention our baby was shown, not just by us, but by all in our community!
Now I hear a second child's voice. It is Carlos's daughter, Isabella. Seven years older than Simon, she is like an older sister to him.
I hear Jenny's voice in the background, welcoming my father and mother. Soon they will be coming into our home. However, not yet, as Jenny is showing them our garden, then no doubt the sculptures in progress of both her own mother and father in the workshop near our house. She is full of hope that both will soon be here, here with us in Paradise.
And what of Harry? I had been told that Thomas had indeed led him to his resurrected mother, and that it had been a wonderful reunion. Last night, whilst within the Light, I had been told that Harry and his mother would also be visiting us very soon. How wonderful that will be! I again raise my head and listen to the children at play, thinking how beautifully it epitomizes life here in this beautiful world. Surely, nothing should ever be changed. However, deep within me, I know nothing ever stays completely the same. I look at my guitar on its stand, and then at the music sheets nearby. It is the second movement to my first classical guitar sonata. It may not be up to the standards of guitar maestros like Tarrega or Sor, however, they are certainly a far cry from what I could have composed just four or five years before. I see even the way I write this epilogue, when contrasted to the rest of the book I had written three years before, even the way I now think, it too has changed. I have become more introspective, my thoughts, well, somehow deeper, more profound. I have simply seen and experienced too much - Harry has played at least some part in that.
I now have other new interests: botany, zoology, astronomy, and yes, even history. I know I will enjoy talking to others who once lived in the past, to learn more of their world, a world that now no longer exists. Here was definitely another part of Harry's influence. Yes, I realize as I write, that change is inevitable, and that learning never ends.
It will be good to see Harry again. Will he be pleased to read my book? Yes, I believe he will. Will he edit or offer suggestions for improvement? Quite possibly. Certainly the historical and narrative details. In his former life, he had been a writer, albeit an academic one, and I am sure he has kept on writing until now. I am also sure he must have written more on Thomas More - an intended pun - and probably other famous people that he might have met. Also his journeys, visions and dreams - surely he must have written about them as well.
He could write yet another book. The mother of a famous American is now residing amongst us, her son having been a West Point graduate, a general, and later a president.
I suddenly recall Harry's strange tales of visions and dreams, and then recall my own. I stop. No, although things do change, nothing can spoil the tranquility of Paradise. Everything is always perfect. Things cannot go wrong.
Thoughts turn to Ron Bristol. What a remarkable change he has made. For six more months after we had left, George and Flo remained with him, not in his ramshackle home, but in that strange and miraculous cave that seemed in every way like my parent's home. Very strange, yet that was how it was. Afterwards, for a while at least, Ron lived in the village of Peace, at first with George and Flo, and later wanting to live in a house of his own. Jenny and I visited him once; he seemed okay, quiet perhaps, but not unfriendly. That was the last time I had seen him. Nothing drastic happened, he just became restless, just wanted to explore, so George had been told. I then recall the incident within the Light more than two years ago, of beholding the angel called John, of him telling me that Ron now knew but had forgiven George as I had forgiven Ron, as we must indeed all forgive. That is how things are in Paradise; how things must be. In Paradise, we always learn and change for the good, at least eventually.
I am now almost finished with writing. I hear my family entering the house. Somehow, I also sense that Harry is not too far away. I also sense another change; the world itself is ever-changing, even here in Paradise. More people will be arriving, from other cultures and from other historical times. I now recall the time when Harry and I had been lying on our backs staring into the starry sky. Now I think of eternity, not just of space, but of time as well. Already so many changes have occurred, but what in a hundred, a thousand, a million, a billion or a trillion years? I suddenly think of dreams, of visions, of heaven, even oddly, of other worlds and dimensions, sending my mind into a dazzling kaleidoscope of ideas. But I am only fantasizing. I cannot at this stage know. However, what I do know is that whatever it may be, I know that God, love, beauty and happiness are all now ubiquitous and eternal. These things will never change. As for the rest, we will know in time. After all, ahead of us is eternity!
THE END
OR IS IT ONLY THE BEGINNING?