A Conversation in Heaven

This came to me last night in a vision. I was sitting on the couch watching Casablanca, and suddenly I had a vision of the Eternal Throne, glowing like the sun in the midst of a richly appointed room. The One who sat on the throne glowed more brightly still. His voice was like a powerful bell or a mighty drum: even at this unimaginable distance, it shook me to my bones.

He was not speaking to me, I knew. Rather, He addressed the figures who stood before Him. There were three of them, and they attended His every word. The first was a hazy presence, more brightness than actual shape. This, I knew somehow, was the Ruach haKodesh, the Holy Spirit. The second figure was large, and powerful wings spread out from the backs of his broad shoulders. On his left hip he wore a massive sword whose blade was flame. A long horn hung on his right hip, and seeing it I knew that it was more dangerous than the sword by far. The third figure was the smallest of them, male, and human to every appearance save that he, too, glowed in the ever-present light of the Throne. He was the Son, the Sacrifice, the Redeemer.

The Father spoke.

"ENOUGH," He said to them. "YOU SEE HOW THEY ARE. YOU SEE WHAT THEY DO. THEY HAVE FALLEN TOO FAR, SUNK TOO LOW. THEY MUST BE CLEANSED."

The angel reached for his horn and lifted it towards his lips, but the Father stayed him with a raised hand. "NO. IT IS STILL TOO SOON FOR JUDGEMENT. DO NOT SOUND YOUR TRUMP. BUT THE GOOD CANNOT THRIVE WHEN SURROUNDED BY EVIL. I WILL SEND ANOTHER FLOOD, TO WASH AWAY THE ILLS THEY HAVE DONE AND RID THE WORLD OF THE UNWORTHY."

But the Son shook His head. "We can't," He said. "We promised We would never do such a thing again. The rainbow still appears as a reminder of Our vow."

There came a moment of silence. The angel set his hand on his trump again, but then let it fall. The Son simply waited. The Ruach haKodesh waited too, but - and this, too, I knew somehow - most of its attention was down on Earth, guiding and counseling and teaching. Finally, the Father spoke again.

"VERY WELL. I PROMISED NEVER AGAIN TO FLOOD THE WORLD. BUT I NEVER SAID ANYTHING ABOUT ZOMBIES."

The Son gaped at the throne. "Zombies?"

"GABRIEL, GO FORTH. FIND FOR US A RIGHTEOUS MAN AND TELL HIM WHAT I INTEND. IT IS FOR HIM TO BUILD A GREAT CASTLE, AND IN THAT CASTLE TO PLACE TWO OF EVERY KIND OF CREATURE, THAT THEIR BRAINS SHALL NOT BE EATEN IN THE CLEANSING TO COME."

Looking, I beheld a mighty citadel ringed with massive walls, and though the zombies circled and circled outside, they could not breach the stones. And inside the walls there was food and fresh water, and people who carried many buckets of animal excrement to the tops of the walls, that they might cast it down upon the zombies below. And there was electricity from the vast spreads of solar cells upon each roof, and a very great deal of ammunition.

I became aware as I witnessed this of a figure standing at my shoulder. It was the angel Gabriel, his massive sword extended in the direction of the citadel. "Behold," he whispered, and his voice was as chimes, so beautiful that I wanted to weep.

Yet I gathered myself, and I turned to face him, and I spake unto him, saying: "You want me to build that?"

But the Archangel shook his head. "Nay," he said unto me. "I want you to find for me a righteous man. For verily, we're not having much luck with that."

Forsooth, I could not contain myself: I chuckled cynically.

Then Gabriel blurred and was gone, and the vision folded in upon itself and faded away, and on the television screen in front of me Rick said, "You played it for her, you can play it for me."

And so I say unto you, if the zombies come and we have no shelter, if no righteous man has built a mighty fortress to preserve each sort of creation, if my vision was true... verily, it is mine own fault that nobody's brains were saved.