Pierced by a Sword

Author:Bud Macfarlane
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Catholicism, Religious & Inspirational Fiction, Fiction, Christian Fiction, Religion & Spirituality, Fiction & Literature, Christian Books & Bibles, Literature & Fiction
Publisher: Saint Jude Media
Published: 2011-02-10T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

1

Early Friday Morning

13 October

Indiana Tollway, Indiana

Moments after challenging God, Nathan fell out of time into the Eternal Now. He was aware that his physical pain was gone. He felt himself turning and flipping, and sensed heat and light in the distance. Then he came to a stop on a ground he could not see, standing on legs he could not look down upon. He saw a swirling cloud which gradually dissipated.

As the cloud dissipated he saw forming in front of him the Cross of Calvary, with his Savior upon it. There was a sound of thunder and whistling wind all around him. Nathan looked upon the man in front of him and comprehended the perfect mathematical symmetry of His limbs. Nathan simply knew that Jesus was perfect and sinless. A Man of Sorrows.

Jesus spoke to Nathan from the Cross:

"Do not be afraid. Son of man, behold your sins!"

All of Nathan's awareness and perception became focused on the wound in Jesus' side which poured forth blood and water, and then light. The light grew and Nathan saw things as God sees, not in chronological succession, but all at once, each in particular. What Nathan saw was perceived as a layered field–a field where everything came into his mind completely.

He was aware of God's total goodness and perfection. He was bathed in His awesome love. The young man felt that there was a wall preventing that love from fully touching him, as if it would destroy him; God's love was ready to roll over him like a giant wave. The knowledge of that love overwhelmed him and filled him with Hope such as he had never hoped on earth. Then:

Layers changed, and Nathan saw a field covered with each of his venial sins. He was aware of their venial nature–that these sins had not condemned him to hell. There were thousands of these sins. He saw them not as a human being looks at a field of grass and sees the whole field, but as God sees the field: each and every blade of grass completely and at the same time.

Nathan saw himself in the act of these sins, watching himself commit each sin like watching thousands of movies at the same time. He watched himself steal office supplies such as pens, notepads, and staples from VV&B for his desk at home; he stole minutes of time from his employer during the pizza delivery job he had taken at college; sneaking into the movies alone through the back exit door as a lonely teenager in Chicago. He stole candy from the corner store several times until he was caught by the proprietor. Nathan, who had despised the proprietor at the time, was suddenly filled with gratitude toward the old man, Mr. Cohen. How easily he had forgotten what he had learned during religion class in first grade: that stealing was wrong.

Nathan saw himself as a five-year-old, spitefully refusing to speak to Babsie when she asked little Nathan if he wanted another hot dog at the school fair.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.