The Honeybee Movement

by David

You know how people wonder whether the human race will go out with a bang or a whimper? I think the honeybees have answered that question for us. I personally see the hand of God in the fact that honeybee workers, classic nose-to-the-grindstone types, are just walking off the job. More and more colonies are turning up empty, or with just a few young and bewildered bees. It’s like the family that left their home in Oklahoma or wherever it was. They drove until the car ran out of gas; then they started walking. No one ever saw them again. Well, I figure this is our last warning. The pillar of salt was a warning. The global flood was another. The honeybees are simply the latest, but I think they show us how it will happen. I’ve seen this in a vision: people just dropping things where they lie and walking away, walking away from everything, and they don’t come back.

Now if we only knew which of the myriad sects was the correct one, the one that had God’s true word, we could all join. Maybe if only one person joined, we would get another chance. I am convinced that this time, as in the time of Noah, someone will see the light. Someone will understand the true word of God, act accordingly, and people will listen. But this has to happen soon. As I walk to and from work it seems to me that more houses are empty, more businesses operate with a skeleton crew, more storefronts are abandoned.

So I think we will be saved, but one thing has me lying awake at night. Suppose one of the countless sects that has been extirpated over the last few millennia was the only one that got it right. Or what if no one has ever understood the Truth?

I’m doing what I can. I’m researching forgotten religions and setting up websites for all of them. Go online and Google “religions.” You’ll find them, mixed in with all the familiar ones. Ritual of the Gnaath. Sisterhood of Eternity. And so on. Each has a PayPal button. I’m not taking that money myself! It really goes to that religion, for website maintenance. I figure if I can revive any of these religions it will improve our odds. And I’m getting lots of hits, lots of contributions. Do I have yours?

Status Quo

by SaraG

I can do this, Marcus thought; I can play him along forever. He sat on the couch with the angel who was in charge of commissioning the stained-glass windows in the Cathedral. The angel called himself Uriel. Whether he really was the angel of Repentance or not, wasn’t the issue. This being had the power to keep Marcus alive as long as he needed him to paint.

Marcus would pull a stunt like Penelope, and drag his work throughout his life.

“I know what you’re doing,” said the angel.

“What?” Marcus was pudgy and did not look particularly intelligent. This trick usually worked.

“Cut it out, I know what you’re thinking.” The angel spread its wings and Marcus winced at the sight of those dirty feathers on his cream sofa. He would have thought that an angel would use his powers to keep his wings clean, but this one seemed to think the bohemian look suited him. “If you think this can go on forever,” Uriel continued, “You’re an idiot. Finish the windows and get out of this cesspool. Heaven is much nicer.”

Marcus didn’t want to go to heaven, not yet. He had been dying a few years back of hereditary kidney failure. Then this being had appeared, claiming to be an angel and offering him the commission to paint the stained-glass windows in the Cathedral, the bishop’s new pet project. He’d said yes, and suddenly, there was a kidney for him and he’d been transplanted. Freed from dialysis he’d thrown himself into the job, designing the intricate patterns that would move the faithful to awe, experimenting with lead alloys that made the windows light and airy, as if an angel held them up, as if they weren’t made of glass after all, but of breath or air.

When his body started to reject the kidney, he’d devised a plan. Work slow and, if necessary, destroy the panes. It hurt, but if it came down to his art or his life, the choice was made.

“I know what you’re doing,” repeated the angel.

“Do you know how to stop me?” asked Marcus.

“No,” said the angel.

“Then it’s settled,” said Marcus.

The angel sighed. “Oh well, what are a few years to me?”

“They are everything to me,” said Marcus.