only time in which it can happen?”
“When?”
“Now,” he said. “Never another time. Never tomorrow. You can only come to Him when the time is now. No other time is real. So the only one who can come is you . . . the only place is here . . . and the only time is now.
“And so the voice of God would now call to the one who is here and now and to each one who would hear His voice wherever and whenever they are . . . The voice of God would say to you this . . .
I have known you from the beginning, from before you took your first step, before you breathed your first breath, before you were even conceived. I have seen all your tears and have known all your sorrows and wounds and pains, all your longings and hopes, all your fears, your dreams and heartbreaks, your burdens and weariness, your times of asking Me why, your cries of loneliness and emptiness, your times of separation, your mourning for what was lost, your weaknesses and failings, your wanderings, your sins and shame . . . And I have still loved you with an everlasting love . . .
And now I call you to leave the darkness and all that is passed and all that I never willed or purposed for your life . . . that the days of your separation would come to an end. It is time now to return. It is time to come home . . . to enter the inheritance of blessing you never knew but were born to enter. It is time for your Jubilee.
Come to Me. And I will not turn you away but will receive you. And I will wipe away all your tears. I will forgive all your sins. I will heal all your wounds. And I will turn all your sorrows into joy. And you will forget your days of darkness and wandering, the days of your separation. And I will make all things new.
And I will bring you into a land where the crippled walk, where deserts bloom, where the blind see, where the defiled become pure, and where that which was lost is found again. I will bring you to a place you have never known and yet have always longed to be, to your Promised Land. And I will never leave you. And you will never again know what it is to be lost. For in that day, you will have come home. You will be Mine, and I will be yours . . . forever.”
“He didn’t say a word after that. Nor did I. I couldn’t. It was enough to just take it all in. And there was nothing I could think of to say that wouldn’t have sounded inappropriate or inadequate in the wake of what had been spoken. There was nothing else to say.
“So we just sat there in silence as the wind swept over the mountaintop and as the light of the rising sun broke through the cloud beneath us.”
Chapter 63
AFTER THE END
SO THAT WAS the last time you saw the Oracle?”
“Yes.”
“Did you ever go back to that mountain?”
“No. I knew if I did, I wouldn’t find him there.”
“What about his tent?”
“I did go back once to look . . . but it was gone. He had moved on.”
“Where do you think he is?”
“I have no idea but somewhere receiving revelations or giving them.”
“And what about you? The revelations weren’t just about the big and cosmic things; they were also personal . . . to you.”
“And to each.”
“Yes, but also to you.”
“If you mean, did I come to God? The answer is yes.”
“And you never went back home?”
“Not yet.”
“What about the visions? Did they continue?”
“No. I don’t believe they were supposed to. I saw what I was meant to see, and I was shown what I was meant to be shown.”
“But you can’t just keep it to yourself. It’s too big, and it involves the world . . . and everyone.”
“No, I don’t believe it was just for me. I wrote it all down. And now you know it as well.”
“But it was given to you. You were the one who came here seeking truth and the meaning of the vision that started it all.”
“But you came here seeking truth and revelation as well.”
“Yes, but I didn’t actually come here to discover what I discovered. I never expected to be shown what you revealed to me. But once you began, I knew I had to hear everything.”
“Then why did you actually come here?”
There was silence for a moment. He hesitated to answer.
“Actually . . . ”
“Yes?”
“Actually . . . ” he paused again, “I had a vision . . . ”
The statement produced a silence much longer than that which had preceded it. The traveler waited anxiously for a response from the man on the mountain, who was now looking out into the distance, as if deliberating in deep thought. Finally he spoke.
“So then,” he said, turning his gaze away from the distance and toward the one awaiting his answer, “where shall we begin?”