heights, we found ourselves inside a mist that made it nearly impossible to see anything that wasn’t immediately in front of us. Still, the boy seemed unfazed by it all. I stayed as close to him as I could.
“It was only after we emerged from the cloud that I saw the first traces of twilight. We approached the mountain’s summit. And that’s when I saw him.”
“The Oracle.”
“Yes, sitting on a rock. It was much the same as when I saw him for the first time, except the mountain now was higher, and below us was a cloud. And as in the beginning he motioned for me to sit on a rock opposite that on which he was sitting. So I did.”
“There are no more doors,” I said.
“No.”
“So will that be my last vision?”
“Time will tell,” he said. “But this will be our last time together. You’ve been shown many things. It is time now that we seal them.”
“Tell me,” said the Oracle, “in all that’s been revealed to you, what have you learned?”
I didn’t answer him right away. I didn’t think there was any way I could. There was too much to sum up. But then I attempted it.
“I’ve learned . . . that God is real.”
“And you didn’t know that before?”
“I did, and I didn’t. At times I felt it, and at times I didn’t. But it’s beyond that now. It’s not a matter of feeling. God is real, and more than real . . . more real than the world.”
“And why do you say that?”
“There’s no way that all these things could have happened apart from the reality of God. The prophecies alone . . . to foretell human events from ancient times and against all odds of their coming true, and yet thousands of years later they come true. Even in the modern world, with all our technology, we still can’t foretell such things. And yet thousands of years ago it was all foretold by shepherds and farmers, simple people with nothing, and it all came true . . . that fact alone. And all the other dimensions of the mystery, all the details, all the precise quirks and twists and turns . . . all happening at the exact appointed times, in the exact ways, in the exact places . . . all brought to their appointed times and places by an unseen hand over the course of millennia . . . No one but God could have done it, and nothing but His reality can explain it.”
“And what does it tell you about the word, the Scriptures?”
“The word is real . . . and also more real than the world.”
“And you say that because of what?”
“Because the world changes, but the word remains. And in the end the world and everything in it conforms to the word and to its purposes.”
“What else does it reveal?” asked the Oracle.
“That nothing is an accident . . . If the veil wasn’t removed, you could miss it. And it could appear as if there was no purpose. But it was all there. Nothing is an accident, the world, history . . . life . . . It’s not random. It has a purpose, even when you can’t see it. It means something. It has meaning and purpose.”
“Yes,” said the Oracle, “a purpose not just to the world and not just to history and not just to life, but to each life. No life is an accident. No life is without meaning. To each is a purpose . . . to yours.”
“To mine . . . ”
“To yours.”
“Specifically . . . ”
“To yours specifically . . . Even when it seemed to be without meaning and purpose, even when you couldn’t make any sense of it . . . there was a reason and a purpose . . . just as there was in the mystery. The hand of God was there, moving all things for the purpose and hope of redemption . . . even when you asked why and found no answer.”
“Even as I asked why, that was in my vision. But I haven’t told it to you yet.”
“It was not just in your vision,” he replied, “but in your life. You asked God why, but you didn’t hear an answer. There was a reason and a purpose. And so it is written, ‘“I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD, “plans of peace and not of calamity, to give you a future and