Friday Novel: God

earlier

"So what is God like?" Sophie asked the angel.

"God is beyond anything I could explain," he said. "Have you ever seen a huge mountain? Or have you ever seen a movie where some spaceship comes near a huge planet? Can you imagine what it would be like to visit the sun or Jupiter?"

"No," Tom said baldly.

"Remember that ride we did on vacation, Tom?" Sophie interjected. "I mean the one where we got in this box-like thing and it shook us around like we were on a roller coaster in space?"

After a second of thinking, Tom finally said, "Oh yeah."

"Well, anyway," the gargoyle continued, "God is so immense and magnificent that it's hard even to imagine if you haven't seen him. Even in heaven, the sense of his glory is greater than any sun or star I have ever visited, and I've visited a lot of stars."

"So that's in heaven, right?" Sophie asked.

"Yes," he said. "It's hard to describe. You see, God is bigger than this entire universe. Heaven isn't exactly in this universe, and God is bigger even than heaven."

"I have no idea what you're saying," Tom said.

"That's pretty much the right response," the angel said with a wry smile. "The power of God is so great, you can feel it even in the lower heavens. It's like if you got close to an electric switching station and you could hear the hum of electricity and feel the hair standing up on your skin."

"The lower heavens?" Sophie said in a questioning voice?

"Yes, it's hard to explain. There are multiple dimensions that are associated with this world. You might say that God is in the 'highest' one, but that isn't quite right either. Some of the evil angels are in the dimensions closest to your world. When you talk about heaven, you're talking about the ultimate dimension associated with your universe. God has other universes, although I've never been to any of them. And his substance--well it is far beyond any of them."

"Again, no clue," Tom said.

"OK, Tom. Let's say you saw the Hulk running down one of the halls in your high school toward you. What would you do? How would you feel?"

"I'd get out of his way."

"Exactly!" The gargoyle said. "Even though he might not be after you, he is so big. He is so strong. You act differently. If you're in his path, you get a little afraid, even if he's not trying to hurt you."

"So we should be afraid of God?" Sophie asked.

"It's hard to explain again," the angel said. "If you know God, you feel peace, an amazing peace. But there is still a kind of fear you get. It's more than respect. It's a sense of how small we are next to God. It's a sense of how pure and how great God is. It's a lot of what we angels mean when we say that God is holy..."