Walk With Me

by Annie Wald

  “She has those cards, the ones with romantic scenes?”

  “Yes. Your partner does too?”

  Peter nodded.

  “Worst invention ever if you ask me. The King should ban them. All those cards do is make her mushy and want to go for a walk holding hands. Holding hands! That’s not going to get the chalice filled. I say it’s better to look at these pictures.” The man went back to admiring the women on his postcards.

  That night, for the first time since he had joined with Celeste, Peter took out his old postcards and looked at them. They stirred his thirst as much as they had before he married Celeste. He wondered if looking at them would help when he and Celeste drank together from the chalice. He would look at them for only ten minutes once a week. There wouldn’t be any harm in that. After all, he didn’t have a five-foot stack—just enough to fit into an envelope.

  So Peter began to look at his postcards as he walked across the plains searching for food. He looked at them more often than he had promised but he justified it, thinking that since he had to be away from Celeste, he needed something to pass the time. Soon he was looking at the postcards every day, and collecting more cards that he found along the way. Then he began to look at them late at night back at the camp when Celeste and the little travelers were asleep. The cards didn’t really satisfy him, and they made him even more dissatisfied with Celeste. But he couldn’t seem to help it. And in my dream, I saw this was not a fairy tale, but the long, hard road of life.

  Into the Orchard of Earthly Delights

  INTO THE ORCHARD

  After walking such a long time on the Plains of Distance, Peter and Celeste were relieved when they came to a wide river that flowed from the Mountains of Maturity. It turned the plains into a wild grassland and at a small rise, they could see that the grassland soon turned into a thick, forested wilderness that extended far into the distance. It looked like food would be plentiful, but the path was small and rugged, no more than a scar that slashed through the rough country. The thought of going through it discouraged them. Not only did they still have their heavy burdens and the three little travelers, they also had new unhealed wounds which would make hiking difficult.

  South of the rise a broad path descended gently into a thriving green valley. In the middle of the valley stood a grand orchard with rows and rows of all kinds of trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. Beyond the orchard were squares of neatly farmed fields of vegetables and lines of fruit vines. Blessing and abundance were the staples of the land.

  When Celeste saw this, she was ready to go down into the Orchard of Earthly Delights. But Peter hesitated. “Something doesn’t seem quite right about it.”

  “What do you mean?” Celeste said. “This is the most beautiful place we’ve seen on our journey. And look at all those travelers down there.”

  “I can’t put it into words,” Peter said. “Maybe it looks too perfect.”

  Celeste became annoyed. “Of course. You don’t mind walking along the ridge into the wilderness; you go off and leave me with the little travelers all day while you gather food. But if you were the one staying with the little travelers, you’d want to go down to the valley and take it easy for a bit.”

  “What if it takes us off the path to the King’s City?”

  “Look how well-watered and well-ordered and clean the orchard is. It must have been created by the King—and how can anything the King created be bad? Besides, we can always come back up and rejoin the path.”

  Celeste was right that the King had created everything that grew in the Orchard of Earthly Delights. Generations of travelers had come to settle there. They cultivated the fields and fruit trees and made it into a comfortable, prosperous place—without the tainted ruin of Slouching City or the stiff dryness of Upright Village.

  However, as Peter suspected, something wasn’t quite right. The splendid pleasures of the orchard were meant to be only a foretaste of what awaited the travelers in the King’s City. Yet once travelers experienced all the good things the orchard had to offer, they became satisfied with the earthly bounty and often decided to give up their journey and settle down in the orchard. Over time, the path through the orchard to the King’s City had become blocked by the trees and fields. The only way out of the orchard, besides the wilderness path, led directly back to Slouching City.

  Peter took one more look at the wilderness that lay ahead of them and thought how hard it would be to travel on the demanding path with Celeste complaining every step of the way. Then he contemplated the peaceful beauty of the Orchard of Earthly Delights. “I think we deserve a rest,” he said.

  As they went down into the valley and entered into the orchard, they marveled at the variety and wealth around them. The best of the King’s creation had been collected into one marvelous place. There were fruit trees: apple and pear and cherry and plum and apricot and orange and lemon, and nut trees: almond and pecan and hazelnut and coconut. They saw grapevines and strawberry patches and blueberry bushes and raspberry bushes, as well as fields of wheat and corn and beans and tomatoes and cucumbers and peppers. There were cows that gave creamy milk and hens that laid rich eggs.

  The little travelers could play all day, sliding down shallow waterfalls into splashing pools, and jumping into soft sand pits.

  There were lakes with pleasure boats and shaded rivers to canoe through, and small woods with paths that made travelers feel like they were still walking to the King’s City. In their free time, travelers could enjoy flower gardens filled with fragrant rainbows of lilies and hyacinths and irises and peonies.

  There were also improvements that had been invented by the travelers themselves. Craftsmen had learned to make vibrantly dyed fabric. The furniture was carved with intricate designs, and there were colorful stained-glass windows. There were schools where little travelers could learn, and museums and concerts and plays to attend. If a traveler fell ill, doctors could cure almost any disease. But all of these advanced benefits were not cheap. Travelers who settled in the orchard eventually needed to stake out a larger claim to pay for the style of life they wanted.

  The orchard covered most of the valley, and it took Peter and Celeste a long time to explore all the delights. They were happy to see that the King had not been forgotten, for many who lived in the orchard met at the gathering huts and read the guidebook. In fact, two leaders, Indulgent and Smooth Talk, were organizing people to build the biggest gathering hut in all the King’s country.

  But like the residents at Pigeon Hole, travelers here paid little attention to instructions in the guidebook that made them feel uncomfortable. In the lanes, one could often see a traveler in a new hat and coat greet a poor traveler who wore old, worn clothes and lacked enough food for his family. “Wear the King’s garments of praise and feed on His will,” the well-off traveler would say, without considering that he could give one of his extra coats and bags of food. Many travelers built large houses so they could store everything they gained, for they had forgotten that when the King called them home to His city, they would have to leave everything behind.

  After Peter and Celeste had surveyed the orchard and saw how pleasant it was, they decided to stay a little while. They found a small house to settle in, and soon they began to worry about what they would eat and what they would wear. Celeste wanted to have the latest fashions like all the other travelers, and Peter thought it would be good to try all the different foods in the orchard.

  The disillusionment they had experienced with each other on the Plains of Distance remained. But there was so much to occupy them—Peter working long hours at his job and Celeste fixing up the house—that they weren’t bothered they saw little of each other. Celeste found plenty of friends and met with them to talk about the guidebook. Peter joined those who were making plans for the new gathering hut and started spending his free time there, proud to be involved in such significant work.

  Although Peter and Celeste were still partners, there was little evid
ence for it except that they lived in the same house and wore their tattered cords of commitment.

  “So is everything fine?” Peter would ask.

  “Couldn’t be better,” Celeste would say.

  The longer they remained in the orchard, the more their love of its pleasures grew, choking out their love for the King. They no longer thought of going back to the Servant’s path. “We need to stay here for the little travelers. That’s our top responsibility. They need to have the very best.”

  They did tell the little travelers about the King, but the little travelers preferred playing on the orchard sports teams rather than going to the gathering hut. As the months went on, Peter and Celeste felt the strain of earning enough money to pay for all they wanted. They were richer than they ever had been since becoming partners, but they never seemed to have enough. They were often short-tempered with each other, and as a result they suffered painful attacks of the burrs. And like other travelers in the orchard, when their unkind words were not sufficient they sometimes fought each other with their clubs. Worst of all, as their love for the King diminished, so did their love for each other. Their hearts became cold.

  Then one day a guide in an old, long, oilskin coat and broad-brimmed leather hat came to the orchard. He announced he was setting up a tent, and every night he would give a talk about the King. Many travelers paid no attention to him; others told him they listened only to guides approved by the leaders of the gathering hut. However, Peter was curious, since the orchard did not get many traveling guides, and he decided to go the first night.

  Heavenly Treasure stood in front of the small assembly and cleared his throat. “My message tonight may seem strange for such a well-fed crowd, but I believe it is what the King wants you to hear.”

  He took his old copy of the guidebook and began to read. “Is anyone thirsty? Come and drink—even if you have no money! Come, take your choice of wine or milk—it’s all free! Why spend your money on food that does not give you strength? Why pay for food that does you no good? Listen to me, and you will eat what is good. You will enjoy the finest food. Come to me with your ears wide open. Listen, and you will find life.”

  He looked out at the crowd. “You may think you are well-fed, living here in the Orchard of Earthly Delights. But I can see how hungry you really are. You work so hard to feed yourselves, but you are skinny in your souls. Listen to me: call on the King. He wants to hear from you. Turn from doing things that don’t please Him. Don’t even think about doing something you know is wrong. Tell Him you are sorry, and He will be lavish in His forgiveness to you, for He is full of mercy.”

  The King’s words that Heavenly Treasure had read cut through Peter like a two-edged sword. When he got home, he looked in the mirror and saw how much thinner he was than when he had first come to the orchard. Then he looked at Celeste and the little travelers. They too were undernourished. Although there was plenty of earthly food in the orchard, it didn’t feed their souls or produce the King’s fruit. Their hearts were starving.

  The next night Peter brought the family with him to hear the guide.

  “Tonight,” Heavenly Treasure said, opening his guidebook, “I’d like to give you another message from the King: ‘I see what you’ve done, your hard, hard work, your refusal to quit. I know you can’t stomach evil, that you weed out apostolic pretenders. I know your persistence, your courage in my cause, that you never wear out.’”

  Celeste whispered to Peter, “I don’t see why people are upset about this guide’s message. He is saying some nice things about us.”

  Heavenly Treasure went on reading. “But you walked away from your first love—why? What’s going on with you, anyway? Do you have any idea how far you’ve fallen? A Lucifer fall! Turn back! Recover your dear, early love. No time to waste, for I’m well on my way to removing your light from the golden circle.”

  Celeste shifted on the bench and folded her arms. “Who does he think he is, coming here and judging us like that? Doesn’t he know we are building the biggest gathering hut?”

  Heavenly Treasure wasn’t finished. He turned to another part of the guidebook. “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried Me and for forty years they saw what I did … See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living King. But encourage one another daily as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.”

  He raised his eyes from the guidebook and looked out on the crowd. “I do not know the condition of your hearts. But I know that your willingness to pause from your work and to focus on the King can be the beginning of a renewed faithfulness in your lives.”

  Peter looked over at Celeste, hoping that the King’s word would cut through the hardness in her heart. But she remained sitting with her arms folded and with a scowl on her face.

  “You need to be discerning of those you listen, to for the guidebook says that false teachers will come, and being greedy, they will exploit you with made-up stories,” Heavenly Treasure told his audience. “However, I want you to remember: ‘There’s nothing to these people—they’re dried-up fountains, storm-scattered clouds, headed for a black hole in hell. They are loudmouths, full of hot air, but still they’re dangerous.’”

  Some of the travelers began to jeer at Heavenly Treasure. Others said this was exactly what people on the other side of the orchard needed to hear, and Heavenly Treasure should take his tent over there.

  “I think he may be right,” Peter said to Celeste. “We have no time for the King, no time for each other. And have you noticed how much thinner we are than when we first came to the orchard, even though there is plenty of food here? The little travelers no longer remember what it was like to travel on the King’s path, and you and I have forgotten all about the Highlands and how much we wanted to reach them.”

  As Celeste listened to Peter, she became alarmed. It was one thing to listen to the guide, and quite another to think of leaving the orchard and again taking up their journey. “That was just a fantasy.” Celeste shook her head. “Maybe super travelers can make the journey, but we are just ordinary people. We have responsibilities—we just can’t walk off. Think of the gathering hut and how it needs you.”

  “We don’t have to be super travelers to make the journey to the King’s City. He gives us the strength and power to walk on the path. I think we should talk to Him about what He wants us to do.”

  A flicker of guilt passed through Celeste. Although she spent a lot of time talking about the King, she hardly spoke to Him anymore. Then she recovered. “Go ahead, but I know what my answer is. If you want to go off and follow that crazy-looking guide, be my guest. I know I can serve the King just as well right here.”

  The next day, the orchard buzzed with gossip about what Heavenly Treasure had said. Some people began to question Indulgent and Smooth Talk, wondering if their guide credentials were in order. Instead of answering them, the two guides accused Heavenly Treasure of stirring up the people with unpleasant words and ordered him out of the orchard. When Peter heard that, he realized that if he and Celeste stayed any longer, they would wither away. But he didn’t know how he could lead his family out of the orchard. That evening, he went down to the basement and found his old guidebook. He spent all night reading it, and stopped when he came to these words of the Servant: “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the King’s City … but all things are possible with the King.” Peter took comfort from that. Even if he didn’t know how to leave the orchard, he could trust the King to do it.

  Peter was tempted to command Celeste to follow him out of the orchard, but he remembered their argument at the split path. To love Celeste meant he couldn’t lord authority over her. He needed to serve her just as the Servant King had come to serve and give His life. Peter decided th
at from then on, instead of going to the gathering hut to meet with Indulgent and Smooth Talk every night, he would stay home to help Celeste with the little travelers. He brought the garbage to the fire dump before Celeste had to remind him, and he volunteered to wash the clothes. Every day he asked the King to show Celeste how thin she was, and how the little travelers were developing greedy pouts. And he often quietly sang one of the King’s songs she had taught him:

  You will go out in joy

  and be led forth in peace;

  the mountains and hills

  will burst into song before you,

  and all the trees of the field

  will clap their hands.

  Instead of the thornbush will grow the pine tree,

  and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.

  This will be for the Lord’s renown,

  for an everlasting sign,

  which will not be destroyed.