In Nothing

With the silent wave of his hand, the two dogs and black cat raced ahead, as Gregory Mackle grunted while he slowly climbed the steep darkened stairs of his old country home going to bed. Hanging on carefully to the handrail, he pulled himself up, hand over hand, so not to fall.

He fell down them once, the steps being narrow and short, adding caution to his nightly climb of weariness. Feeling old, worn out, and tired, he looked forward to laying his naked body between the sheets, putting his head on the pillow, and drifting off to a deep, dream filled sleep.

Ah, the dreams. A wondrous world of mystique, the unknown, and the hidden messages he did not often understand. He soared and flown, ran in terror, or watched through amazed eyes at people and places he had never seen before. He swam in pools, diving for tokens to give to a woman he thought his wife, under the covering of ominous clouds in the darkened day. The dreams were a special time for him, for there was no phoniness, pretense, or games played with ones soul as found in the daily world. No times of labor and toil, just times of exploring, seeking, yet never finding. The dreams, the part of our soul that never slumbers nor sleeps; a caldron of emotions exposed in the land of the unknown, giving revelation that the mind that harbors them has never known peace or tranquility. Hearing the gentle snores of his wife, seeing the animals settled in for the night, Gregory flicked off the nightlight, then lay his head down and closed his eyes.

Somewhere in time, Gregory found himself standing in a very black void. “How could he be standing there?” he wondered to himself. He reached out; seeking to touch something, yet nothing was there. “Where is my room, where is my home, where am I?” Touching himself, he felt he was alive. He put a finger to his carotid artery at his neck and felt a pulse. He could hear himself when he spoke, but the silence was overwhelming. He was not falling, nor drifting, but standing in nothing. Gregory had never experienced this before, nor ever heard of anything like this. “What, was going on?”

The claustrophobic terror of the unknown certainty, the numbness of nothing normal that is occurring, forces the mind to race and wonder where is the escape? It is shear and absolute absurdity that this could possibly be happening. It defies all known forces of science and normality. How can one stand, in nothing? He was naked, yet felt neither warmth nor cold. The soles of his feet touched nothing. He could turn, and walk, going nowhere. He wondered if he had died, yet his mind flashed back to his pulse, showing he was still alive. Touching himself again, he reassured himself of his status.

Gregory’s eyes caught sight of something in the extreme far distance. He observed an ever-growing pinwheel of boiling fire and brimstone. Its appearance shaped like the formation of a galaxy in scope and dimension. It was as though Gregory was viewing it from above, yet at a distance, and no matter how fast and hard he tried to get to it, it remained at a constant distance from him. In slow motion it rotated, like watching a film from a science channel of distant galaxies, yet, this one was molten and burning, alive in its fury like a lake of volcanic magma boiling and bubbling to the surface. “What the hell was this,” Gregory thought to himself, “why is it there?” He was glad to be able to see something, even if it was in the far distance, so his mind would not go berserk of standing in nothing with nothing to see. His vision was fixated on the ever-slow rotation of this molten galaxy before him that was so far away.

Out of the corner of his vision, Gregory saw another person, and he turned to look at him, and then was staggered to see billions upon billions of people, both male and female, all naked, standing as he was, in nothing. Their age ranges were from infants to old. They could not touch nor approach each other, keeping at a fixed distance from each other, many with puzzled looks on their faces, and all watching the churning caldron of rotational fire that was before them. Gregory could see some with their mouths moving in speaking, but Gregory heard no sound. Gregory spoke again, and only heard his own voice, yet none of them heard his. The shear number of them was staggering to Gregory, and he wondered who they were and why they were here, as he was. Moving through them, without ever touching, he looked for familiar faces.

It seemed like eons to Gregory to move though the endless faces of those who were there. Some he recognized from history books of long ago, others from the pages of the newspapers he read in what he thought was yesterday. “I know some of these people,” Gregory thought to himself. It then dawned on him that all the people who were ever created, conceived, born or lived upon that planet we call Earth, were here in nothing, with nothing, just as he was. They were all equal to each other; no homage was paid to the powerful, notable, or rich from the past. Everyone had nothing, but themselves with their memories, their thoughts, and their questions in their minds. It blew Gregory’s mind as to how all these could be standing in nothing, with nothing to support them, all as he was. Gregory then saw his wife, and their eyes locked, and he saw her mouth the words “I love you,” and he spoke the same to her, knowing she would never hear it, seeing the tears and anguish in her eyes. Knowing that he could do nothing, nor able to neither embrace nor touch her, he continued, searching the faces of those before him. There was sadness in his heart, and tears in his eyes, as he truly loved his wife, and they would never be together again as he far as he could see it.

Then the lights came, thousands upon thousands of them, like pinpricks in the distance, growing ever larger and larger before all those there, moving about with great ease. The lights soon took shape, massively powerful, exceptionally tall, masculine, with fearsome and angelic otherworldliness in features. In robes of white, they were bright entities that kept their distance from the rest of naked masses before them, the light separated from the darkness. “What alien beings are these?” Gregory thought to himself. “And what is their purpose of these entities?” he wondered. They brought dread and fear to him, and his stomach churned inside. He felt naked before them, and had no weapons to fight them but his bare hands. He knew he could not overpower them, even together with the masses of people. Gregory moved towards them, but could never reach them. These entities said nothing, nor did any sound come from them as they moved about. They then stood there regarding us as we looked upon them, the silence becoming violently overwhelming.

More of these beings were coming, carrying easily two identically massive and unique thrones, setting them between the naked masses, and the entities. A seamlessly fitted polished kaleidoscope of brilliant colors of many precious stones and crystalline in appearance, Gregory was able to see through them, viewing the entities on the other side. The tall backs were ornate, as were the huge stubby legs, with carvings of grapes, vines, pomegranates, and chaffs of wheat. The two massive arms ended in what appeared to be closed paws of a lion. At the base of each of them was a foot deep layer of highly reflective pure solid gold, spreading equidistant to all four sides like a large platform for each throne. Four burning fiery wheels with spokes attached to each throne base, two on each side, which slowly and continuously rotated in opposite directions. Any movement by the entities created a dazzling display of radiance that pulsated and flashed emanating from the thrones in reflection of their brilliance emanating like rays of sunlight on a cloudy day, sunrise or sunset, or reflections from a diamond ring. The entities moved around, under, and over these thrones in their preparation of them for placement. Gregory’s is awed as to how they stayed there, existing in nothing, like all those naked masses around him, the slow spiraling massive lake of the molten galaxy off in the distance, and the myriads of entities now standing silently in front of him, waiting.

There was no notion of the passing of time, for it appeared that time ceased to exist. No familiar sunrises nor sunsets, a passing of the seasons of the moon or the seasons of time, no ticking of the clocks, but a silent void filled with the images he has seen thus far. Gregory’s mind sought to comprehend it all, to try to understand the meaning, yet he could not come up with anything rational or normal. As he pondered it, he glanced around to the others standing with him, and wondered what they too were thinking.

Then it began. First, a brilliant light and a lesser light revealed way far off in the distance. They slowly drove the darkness away in their brilliance as they progressively moved forward. These two lights were far brighter then the previous thousands of lights that herald the entities. All the entities fell and lay prostrate for a moment, then stood again at these approaching lights. All eyes were riveted upon them. Soon, all the blackness bathed in light and everything became clearer and more focused due to it. The massive rotating lake of molten magma shaped as a spiral galaxy became more vivid and sinister, with the hues of reds, yellows, oranges, black, grays, and the boiling liquefied lava bubbling became pronounced. Gregory shuddered as he viewed it, as the evil of its appearance made Gregory wonder as to what was its purpose. Coupled with his thoughts were the two exquisite thrones with their golden bases, the dazzling yet fearsome looking robed entities, the massive gathering of the naked people, and now the two approaching lights, both now resembling humanlike forms, the more brilliant one being larger while the other normal sized, just didn’t add up to him.

Gregory’s gaze fixated on the larger one, as he never had seen anything like it nor could have imagined it, very abstruse to him, the content consisting of pure brilliant light in various degrees that revolved, rotated, flashed, and pulsated within and throughout the humanlike form. Clothed in nothing but exceptionally luminous light, it was beautiful to behold, akin to a lighted disco or rock band light show, but to a massively greater degree. It appeared to have arms, legs, torso, and area for the head, yet it consisted totally of various magnitudes or stages of light with all the energy it contains, all in constant swirling, revolving, evolving motion. Gregory got the sense that he could dive or jump into and travel freely within that form, and be forever lost within those lights, ever exploring, yet coming to no end of discovery. He also got the sense that the regal wisdom that was contained within this lighted entity was far greater then he could even comprehend, far surpassing all the combined knowledge and understanding of all the masses of naked people before it to a massive degree. Gregory further felt the shear raw power emanating from this lighted being, that power reaching into and going through far beyond the core of his human body and soul. He stood there stunned, not understanding nor fathoming what he was seeing or feeling, dazed and awed by the brilliant beauty of that lighted entity that strode ponderously yet purposely forward.

Gregory then looked closely at the other approaching one, which was to the right of the swirling pulsating lighted entity. Like the other entities that came before, this one too had on a white robe that radiantly gleamed and shined brightly, and was exceedingly perfectly pure in color, like white snow. A wide belt of pure gold encompassed his waist. Imbedded in the large square buckle of that belt, in four rows of three, are precious and unique stones set in gold filigree. These overlaid a raised relief seven branched-candelabrum flanked by two olive trees, one on each side. The artwork is exquisite. The exposed body parts the robe did not encase were very dazzling and fully white, as was the hair on the head and beard that appeared like brilliant white wool. The brilliance of his appearance was amazing and stunning. The eyes were like translucent dancing fire, which overlaid a vision of galaxies, stars, and other astronomical beauty not normally seen from earth or by man. The face was the face of an ancient one, wise and solemn.

When these two got to the thrones, they sat, the dazzling lighted entity to Gregory’s right, and the white robed one to his left. Immediately the thrones turned white and were ablaze with flames and dazzling fire, and rivers of fire were flowing from the thrones, outward and down, pouring into the slow spiraling lake of molten bubbling magma that shown in the distance. Neither the thrones nor these two are hurt nor consumed with the fires, but they sat there quietly before the myriads upon myriads of naked people standing before them, and the thousands upon thousands of lighted entities behind them. All this is done in quietness, and the silence of it all is overwhelming. There was no more darkness, everything now exposed to light. Several more of the robed lighted entities came before the thrones, each carrying a massive book bound in leather, with silver ornate writings on the covers. Each bowed to the seated ones, then held the books before them. Then another lighted entity came as well, carrying a special book that had gold ornate writing on the cover. He too bowed, and then stood there silently. Then the books are now opened silently.

In a short space of time, Gregory’s entire life flashed before him, seemingly in slow motion like a panoramic movie of his existence. There were things he was proud of, and things that he was not. There was nothing hidden about his life that was not revealed. All his secret thoughts, and spoken words came to the surface, words that he could say, and words of anger he regretted. Everything he personally desired, everything he revered, and that which he tried to keep hidden and that which he was ashamed of, flashed into existence. The range of emotions that Gregory underwent was traumatic and swift in that short space of time; from agony to joy, grief to healing, humiliation to penitence he felt. As it was in nothing that he was standing in, yet everything now seen and shown, nothing about his life is untouched or unrevealed. Gregory wondered how many others were viewing his life flashing before him as he did, and a moment of uncomforted anguish washed over him, in hopes that they did not see it. Yet the silence remained deafening.

Then the robed, brilliantly white being with the gold belt stood, and spoke a few words in a voice that sounded like rolling thunder. He lifted up his hand, and with a wave, immediately the myriads and myriads of naked people divided to the left and to the right of that being instantly, with the greater portion on the left, and a vastly smaller portion on the right where Gregory found himself standing in nothing. Then the robed being spoke “Depart from me,” to those on his left, and immediately the lighted entities started taking and throwing the naked people in the left hand group downward towards that slowly rotating lake of molten fire. There was neither return nor escape for all who were there in that group. They are thrown into that caldron of the galaxy of bubbling fire unceremoniously. Then to those on his right, he spoke “Come,” as Gregory lost himself in deep thought while that being continued talking, wondering to himself what enabled him to be in this group instead of the doomed ones on the left of that being.

Then, for the first time, the other lighted being that sat on the other throne spoke these final words, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Gregory was astounded as he watched this being create, out of nothing, a brand new earth, with the spoken word. That new world was massive in size, had no seas on it, and totally beautiful and wondrous to behold. This newly created world was set alone, in nothing, and rotated slowly. Then the being spoke again, and new stars and other planets now created, being set around this new earth, in nothing.

***

“I write what I see, and it comes from the heart.” …..Jon C. Randall