Lost Souls

by Wendy J. Shores

  “I was hoping you would know!” exclaimed Raaida.

  Frustrated, Marissa withdrew the ring and slipped it off of the chain and onto her finger hoping the vibration from the music would crack and shatter the glass like substance. As soon as she did, the force field disappeared as if it had never there and behind it appeared a maze, no, not a maze, more like a labyrinth. She had seen something like this many years ago. It was a prayer labyrinth. There had been one in her church when she’d been a child, only this one was on a much larger scale, on an astronomically large scale. She intuitively knew, this was her chance to make things right with her Father at last. This was the chance that she was being given to pray to Him and to open up her heart and soul to Him and show Him how sincere she was in her apology. She made her way down the slope to the beginning of the labyrinth and kicked off her shoes. Bowing her head, she began to walk, with each step delving deeper and deeper into prayer. As she prayed, the choir of angels singing from the ring sang the sweetest song she had ever heard. She no longer acknowledged Raaida and Yoska although she could still sense their presence, but they knew this was not just her mission. It was theirs as well. This was the mission she had started all of those hundreds of years ago when she had defied their Father and had eaten from the tree. As she walked, she revisited each and every lifetime she had had before, reliving the painful memories as well as the wonderful ones. With each step she felt herself coming closer and closer to God her creator and also to Dalton. She concentrated hard, harder than she had ever concentrated in her life, each word in her mind being said specifically to God, each step bringing her closer and closer to her destiny.

  Yoska and Raaida had begun their own journey following behind her, each in their own prayer for forgiveness, each reaching out and trying to garner their Fathers forgiveness for the mistakes they had made in their many lifetimes. Behind them, people had already begun to follow them, people coming from all ends of the earth, the line seemingly endless, yet each knowing what to do when they got there.

  Ahead of Marissa, strangely enough, there was a lamb, a lamb with wool as white as snow. Its seven eyes watched her curiously as she came near and on its head were seven horns. It was chewing on a scroll of paper, and in her mind she knew, this was the biblical lamb opening the first of the seven seals. Goosebumps rose on her skin as she watched it chew through the wax seal and above them there was a loud clap of thunder and the clouds parted and there among the clouds was a warrior with a crown shining brightly on his head for all to see. He sat on a white horse and carried a bow. As he drew back his bow, an arrow of lightning flew down among the people that were following behind her, killing whoever he hit. No one panicked, no one ran, it was as if they had resigned themselves to their fate. These were the ones who had no God. The ones who had stumbled through life thinking there was nothing more to believe in other than their own egos. These were the ones who could find no one more important in life than their own selves and who had seldom cast a kind eye on another, those who were too busy in their own lives to consider the feelings of anyone who did not directly revolve around them.

  Turning her eyes back to the path ahead of her, she sees the lamb, wool as pure and as white as a freshly fallen snow, this time chewing through the second wax seal on the scroll. As the seal disappeared, a voice as loud as the loudest thunder bellowed,

  “Come and see!” and his voice echoed from every mountain and from every tree top all over the world.

  The clouds once again parted and low and behold there appeared a red horse, as red as the reddest rose, and on the horse was yet another beast who wielded a powerful sword and he swung his sword ever higher into the clouds. As he swung the sword, wars broke out worldwide and brother fought against brother, mother against daughter and friend against friend. It was as if love was a forgotten feeling and anger and hatred had taken its place. Marissa hung her head once again, praying to God that the wars would stop and people would regain the love they’d once had in their hearts.

  As she glanced up yet again, there was the lamb, the same lamb that had been leading her down the prayer labyrinth, three of its seven eyes trained on her and the remaining four watching what was going on outside the prayer labyrinth, this time chewing off the third wax seal from the scroll. This time there appeared a black horse. Again the rider’s voice bellowed,

  “Come and see!” And again the clouds parted to allow the entrance of the black horse.

  The rider of this horse held in his hands a scale made of the finest gold that shone so brightly no one in the world could help but see it. He cried out, “A loaf of wheat bread or three loaves of barley for a day’s pay. And don’t waste the olive oil and the wine!” Marissa knew this was the Anti-Christ whose time had come to control the world. Those who had not paid attention to Gods word and had not followed their bible would now be in his hands for the next 7 years.

  As the beast finished his sentence, there appeared thousands and thousands of the starved and hungry from every corner of the world, every child whose stomach was swollen and empty and whose eyes implored you to see into their very souls. Every adult whose stomach was also swollen and empty who had spent every moment of their waking lives trying to feed themselves and their children, many whom had succumbed to hunger and died. Marissa saw the homeless who had been overlooked by their fellow man, many of whom had died fighting defending the country of the people who now overlooked them, those who had had to dig in trash bins and beg for every morsel that had kept them alive. As she watched, tears fell from her eyes because each and every one of these people was her child. She felt an attachment to them as deep as she had felt for her own mother. As each pair of eyes turned to her in desperation, she prayed to their Father to assuage their hunger and to end their suffering. She reached out her hand to them and although she wasn’t close enough to touch them, she sent her thoughts of love to them and showed them her tears without shame, wishing she could envelope them all in her arms and take their pain away. Lowering her head once more, she prayed even harder, prayed with the most sincerity she could muster. Her heart cried with pain and just when she thought she could take no more, she glanced again at the lamb as if it called to her with a voice as loud as the horsemen, and she watched as it chewed the fourth seal from the scroll.

  Again she heard the voice of the beast cry out,

  “Come and see!” and again, the clouds parted and the fourth horse, a pale horse, came forth and set up a cry from all who seen it, for on the horse sat Death, the same beast that had plagued her for all of these years, sitting as proud and as tall as any of the other beasts had, despite the fact that their Father had condemned him to crawl on his belly for all of the days of his life! Behind him Hell followed closely on his heels with the screams of the unholy and the fires that burned for all eternity. As the beasts before him had done, he wielded a sword and again and again struck people down who had sinned and had never asked for forgiveness from their Holy Father. Heads rolled, guts spilled and blood stained the ground as red as red could be. These souls belonged to him. Jews with yarmulkes still attached to their heads, Gods chosen ones who had defied their Father and had turned their backs on Him by refusing the Son he had sent to Earth, the one who had died for all of their sins. Marissa was openly crying now, watching as Death smiled with glee with each swipe of his sword. Still, she continued her journey knowing if she stopped now, she would never find the strength to go on to the end. She must not fail again!

  Looking to the lamb to see what was coming, she seen him chew off the fifth seal from the scroll and with it appeared a great white light, glowing like the brightest sun just ahead of them on the horizon. The sky opened up to show the millions of Christian souls that had died at the hand of the Jews after Jesus’ death which had led to the fall of Jerusalem. There, were the millions of Christians who had been persecuted for their belief in Jesus, our Brother who died for all of our sins on the cross and was resurrected to go home to our Heavenly Father and to sit on his r
ight hand until it was time to bring them all home. As she watched in amazement, the dead all cried out in unison and said,

  “How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” As they rose, one by one, each had their garments which were filthy and stained with their blood, replaced with a robe as white as snow that glistened and shone as bright as the one worn by our Savior, Jesus. And then God looked upon them with love and said, “Rest my children. The season will be short I swear to you and when the time comes, you will ascend with me to your eternal home just as I promised. You will see your loved ones again soon.” And with those words the dead closed their eyes and lay down once more to sleep among the stars until it was time.

  Marissa still wept. She wept at the beauty of it all and at the love she had felt radiating from her Father. It had been so long since she had felt His presence so close to her and the shame she had carried for lifetimes rose again to the surface and reminded her once more of her mission. She was beginning to feel just a morsel of the pain she must have caused her Father all of those lifetimes ago. She now knew how it felt to lose your children even though she had never birthed them all from her own body. With the piercing gaze of every soul that looked out to her from beyond the grave, the agony she had caused God was finally known to her. She relived it over and over and over again, stumbling and crying and praying to God to forgive her.

  She watched yet again as the lamb chewed the sixth seal from the scroll. As it chewed, the lamb’s legs began to tremble and shake. It shook so hard, Marissa could feel it through to her bones. Suddenly, she realized it was the ground quaking and it quaked with such force that people who were walking behind her on the prayer labyrinth stumbled and fell and she cried out to them to keep going and to try to help the others. Off to the side she could see men running to the side of the mountain to take refuge in the caves, shouting out to their women and children to follow them. Stars were falling from the sky by the hundreds and crashing into the ground all around them, meteors that now smoked and burned nearby. She watched as the men who had run away stood in the mouths of the caves screaming at the meteors to fall on them and hide them from the face of God and the face of Jesus, and from the wrath of the Lamb. Marissa gasped as her eyes were drawn to the heavens and she watched as the day turned to the darkest night and the moon turned the color of blood. She watched in horror as the stars fell from the sky in a meteoric flood smashing into buildings all over the world and making them flat. People screamed and cried and all Marissa could do was stay calm and pray harder. She knew this was the nightmare she was being forced to live through in order to gain her forgiveness from God. Marissa watched at the majesty it must have taken to roll the sky back as if it were no more than a scroll, and the mountains moved as if they weighed no more than a feather from a bird. She watched as people began to disappear behind her and beside her, each leaving as a puff of smoke dissipates and left nothing more than their garments behind.

  Suddenly, as fast as it all began, it was over. Or so she thought. The sky suddenly grew bright with a light brighter than the sun and the sound of trumpets could be heard in every corner of the world. She watched as Jesus in all the dignity and splendor of His eternal majesty descended from Heaven to the sky above them. Looking to the east and the west for the source of the booming voice, she could see nothing, but again she heard it say “Rise from your graves, for this is the day your Lord has come to gather all of you together to take you home. Everywhere she looked she could see bodies ascending to the Heavens to be with Jesus. As each one rose, their filthy garments which were stained and worn were replaced with the pure white robes of their Brother and their Father, each body becoming as glorious as theirs taking her mind back to the beginning of time when God said “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness,” and she seen that it was so. Angels blew their trumpets to announce the rapture and to guide the souls to God. The rapture of the churches had begun. She watched as bodies shimmered in the light of their Father and glowed with an innocence that made her weep with joy.

  ***

  AS DALTON CAME back to the wall, he was guided to remove the ring once more from his pocket and to slip it back on his finger. After doing this, he felt more at peace and moved closer to the force field. Holding his hand close to the warmth that emanated from it, he watched as it began to shake. It was as if the force field held a vacuum that was drawing his hand ever closer to the shield. The instant the hand with the ring touched it, it shattered making a sound so loud they heard it all the way back to the hut where some of the others had stayed to await their return and now came running to see what was wrong. Madoc and the ones who had stayed in the dwelling containing the cross also came running to see what had happened and was amazed at the shards of a glass like substance lying around the opening like someone had thrown a baseball through a plate glass window. Bending over, he picked a piece up and examined it. It looked just like ordinary glass. He shrugged his shoulders and let it drop back among the other pieces, anxious to start back to the main village. As soon as they had turned to leave, a rainbow began to reflect off of all of the prisms of glass and again ended in the middle of the jungle where they had cleared it to that strange structure they had found earlier in the day. It seemed like so long ago now.

  Dalton now was anxious to get to the building they had found, the one at the end of the path of gold. He had the whole community on his heels now; everyone curious to know what was going to happen and hoping that he would now lead them to their loved ones.

  As Dalton came upon the walls once more, he couldn’t help but feel that this was no ordinary building. The walls had no stone on top of any stone and seemed to just be one solid sheet of rock. He had never seen anything built in this era like it. As he drew near, the holiness that radiated off of it was unlike anything he had ever felt in any place on earth before. Instinctively, he knew that he had been right, that this was the Lost Temple of the Jews that everyone thought had been destroyed. As he approached the East wall, he could see a flaming sword swinging in large arches leaving no way to enter. Momentarily confused, he couldn’t figure out why the Cherubim and Flaming Sword would be placed here when they were supposed to be placed at the east wall of the Garden of Eden. It didn’t make any sense, but what had really made sense since this whole crazy escapade began? Beside the flaming sword also stood the Cherubim that God had placed there, those who had sworn to Him to never let anyone enter. As Dalton drew nearer, he could feel the agonizing transformation begin, pain in his hands and in his feet and as he glanced down, he could see the wounds he had suffered in his past life as Christ reappearing. His blood dripped along the golden bricks of the path as he drew closer to the entrance. His garments had miraculously been replaced with a white robe and already it was becoming stained with his blood. Finally he came up to the Cherubim holding out his hands and showing his wounds and said,

  “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes unto the Father but through Me.”

  As soon as the words left his lips, the Cherubim bowed and disappeared, one after the other. The flame on the sword sputtered and went out and dropped harmlessly at Dalton’s feet and the gate that had been firmly closed and locked in front of them, swung open for them to enter. Many of the followers behind Dalton had dropped to their knees and begun to pray. They could scarcely believe that they were in the presence of Jesus Himself and reverently thanked God for sending His Son once again to free them from the woes of the world.

  “When the Great Flood came and cleansed the earth of all of the evil that had grown here, my Father took not just the Tree of Life, but the whole Garden of Eden and placed it here, in His Third Heaven.” Dalton said, the realization finally becoming clear to him. This is where He will bring all of His children to claim their eternal life for not only is this the Lost Temple of the Jews, this is also the housing for the Garden of Eden and if we walk through this prayer labyrinth it will take us to the Tree
of Life. How wrong Dalton had been since the beginning in thinking this was a different dimension! It had been Paradise all along, the way to the home of his Father, a house that had many rooms, enough for all who believed in Him, Jesus Christ, Dalton. He could feel the anxiousness in his heart, He could feel Himself becoming closer to His Father with every step he made now and knew the journey was soon over. Marissa once again tugged at his heart and he knew he was closer to her than he had ever been as well. Their relationship played in his mind, all of the tears, the laughter, the tenderness and the togetherness and again he felt the hollow in his soul that he always seemed to feel when he wasn’t with her. He wished she were beside Him right now experiencing this incredible event that was happening to Him.

  Out of nowhere the ground started to shake and screams and shouts of surprise sounded from everyone behind him as they grabbed on to each other and waited for it to end. Dalton watched as the ground opened up before him and felt himself being lowered as if on a current of air to the valley which lay below. As he was descending, He seen her. Walking with her eyes closed and still, after all of these millennia, praying to their Father and asking, no begging, for forgiveness. As much as he wanted to call to her, now was not the time. He had much to do and many to gather to take unto the Heavens to their new resting place, their eternal home. So many who had slept waiting for this moment, so many who had lifted their voices in prayer and in song and whose belief was unwavering and strong. Dalton lifted his hands and as he did, people on the earth began to rise from their grave, others disappeared from their car, homes, ships, airplanes and wherever else the Children of God were at the time. The Rapture had begun.