Chapter 5 – Beach Party

On the beach of Purgatory, the first thing that Elizabeth felt was the bright sun shining on her. She paused for a moment to take a quick look at the glowing orb of light rising above the mountains of Purgatory. It was a warm presence after the cool waters and she felt herself being renewed and invigorated. Her body began to glow from the sun’s light and she felt a new energy seeping into her through the pores of her skin warming her inside and out. Any sense she had of age and infirmity was gone like the passing of weakness from an old sickness that had been cured. It made her joyful. She could not remember ever having experienced such joy.

As she stood staring at the sun, a figure emerged from it, a flying form moving toward her. It was birdlike in its movement , and the closer the from came as it flew towards her, she thought she recognized who it was. In one blink the figure was before her smiling. It was the Holy Spirit colored in bright red, cloaked in thousands of little fingers fluttering like wings on a bird in the air..She now recognized that the identifying feature of the Holy Spirit was the Spirit’s two eyes bright with mischief,

“Two people I’d like you meet, Elizabeth,” the Holy Spirit said lifting her up and flying her beyond the running Napoleon, who looked up at them obviously annoyed at having to follow them instead of being in the lead. Catherine walked comfortably ten yards behind Napoleon talking to a figure that Elizabeth thought was an angel. As Elizabeth was carried aloft, she and Holy Spirit came closer to the shore where the figures of people washed onto the beach carried from the gate of Hell.

The Holy Spirit landed in front of a woman dressed in workman’s clothes, sleeves and pant legs rolled up. She was helping the swimming figures stand as they emerged from the water and she was directing them to tables lined up along the shore of Purgatory as far as Elizabeth could see. Each table had a figure sitting looking down at charts that seemed to glow with a colored life. The newly arrived souls didn’t seem to have to wait long before they could sit and talk to one of the people at one of the tables.

“Eve, stop for a moment and say hello to Elizabeth,” said the Holy Spirit. “Elizabeth, meet the great lady, Eve, first of a long line of beautiful human women to grace Heaven and Earth.”

Eve came over and hugged Elizabeth. Her embrace felt like a long forgotten hug from Elizabeth’s mother, a memory pulled out of an infant awareness deep in Elizabeth’s being. It was a welcome hug and, like the sun shining on her, gave Elizabeth more strength and a sense of well being. “Elizabeth, I’m glad to meet you in person. I’ve been an admirer since you were a child, poor girl caught in political circumstances that only a brave young soul could survive.” Elizabeth looked at the Holy Spirit, “…and you, eternal conniver, what impossible task have you set her upon.”

The Holy Spirit only chuckled as Napoleon caught up with them, momentarily breathless. He said, “We are to find the Path of Glory between here and Heaven.”

Eve looked with skepticism at Napoleon. “Always in search of glory, my young progeny. Be careful when it comes to doing special work for this person of the Trinity, all is never as it seems. I should know.” She winked at the Holy Spirit, who flew in a circle around Elizabeth creating a frame. A picture came to life around Eve. She was now standing in a landscape that reminded Elizabeth of ancient forests described by explorers, who had come back from the new worlds of her time.

Catherine ran up and pushed Elizabeth and Napoleon into the frame. “We don’t want to miss this,” she said. “What is this?” said Elizabeth. Catherine responded, “It is a living memory and I think a very important memory.”

The three companions stood on the ground of the forest in the memory of Eve and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, the Great Storyteller, began the narrative and as he spoke the three companions could see the story happening before them.

“At one time before humanity had become the center of creation, I was off investigating a distant part of the First Person’s creation. Number One’s creative bounds know no limits. I could, can always find something new and beautiful brought into existence from the divine imaginative impulses of the Creator. I came upon the small globe, later to be called Earth, in a far flung end of the pocket of creation humans now call the cosmos. The planet I came upon was filled with interesting, diverse forms of life, amazing even to me, who in the end has to account for all the First Person creates. In my investigation, I found two young creatures that were playing in a field of grass circled by remarkable tall trees.”

As the Holy Spirit told this story, the companions could see two primitive young human figures running after each other in a grassy plain on the edge of tropical forest, a male and a female. The female looked like Eve. Elizabeth thought that the male figure must have been.. “Adam,” said the voice of Eve, who was both in the memory and observing it with them.

“We had a great afternoon playing in the grass. I imitated a small firelight that flickered in front of these two children. They attempted to catch me in a playful romp, competing with each other to be the first to grasp the small flicker of light I had become. Then I accidently…”

“Don’t be fooled by that,” said Eve. Catherine added, “Nothing accidental happens with the Holy Spirit.” Elizabeth noted that people who had spent time in eternity seemed to be quite forthright in the presence of the persons of God, almost rude by her standards as a queen. At one time, she would never allow such questioning of the facts of her stories.

The Holy Spirit ignoring the comments of Eve and Catherine continued the narrative. “Proud I was the Creator’s ingenuity in allowing for such remarkable living beings as my two new playmates. Bursting with pride and admiration, I exploded into a ball of color.” The pictures showed the two human figures reaching for the flickering light at once, when it suddenly became a rainbow colored ball with the two eyes of the Spirit, the eyes that contained the knowledge of the vastness of all creation, and it was clear that in that instance something changed in the two humans.

“They became aware for a moment of me, of God, of something far greater than themselves,” said the Great Storyteller.

Eve added, “…and even more important. Adam and I became aware that the powerful thing before us was aware of us, loved us and was proud of us. That is when we first became truly human.”

The Holy Spirit flashed fast forwarded images in front of them of that awareness spreading out to other human creatures, a spontaneous explosion of awareness that made the other human animals like Adam and Eve into something new.

The Holy Spirit closed the living memory bringing all the figures back to Purgatory’s beach. The Spirit added, “That awareness became the problem, set the busy agenda for Heaven. Human beings will never be content until they were aware of everything.”

“As if you didn’t know that, getting me, us into all this trouble,” Eve added. She leaned over and kissed the Third Person of the Living God, who seemed to blush with pride. Then the Holy Spirit lifted Elizabeth, Catherine, and Napoleon up and carried them away along the rows of tables. Eve yelled after them, “Nice to meet you.” She then returned to her task of helping swimmers emerging from the water.

The Holy Spirit set the three down at a table where Elizabeth recognized Dante talking to another a man. The Holy Spirit flew away from them saying, “I’d like you to meet Charles Darwin. He will help you find your future direction.”

“Yes, I have much to tell you,” said the man now identified as Darwin, “Things are evolving rapidly, so you need to be on your way to the find the Path of Glory.”

To be continued . . .