Re: The Diary of Ash
Not long after it appeared, it faded away and the sun came out, shining in full strength. Signs and wonders followed quickly…. There fell a great hail:… and men cursed God for it “was exceedingly great.” 2…
Our attackers who stayed in the open and were not destroyed continued to look in terror on the scene. Streams stopped flowing. Dark, heavy clouds clashed against one another. Then through a break in the clouds, a star beamed with a brilliancy four times the darkness….10 the clouds were swept back and there appeared a hand holding two tables of stone folded together. It was God’s 10 commandments… the hand opened the tables, and there were seen the commandments, traced with what looked like a pen of fire. The words were so plain that all could read them. They were an exact copy of the law given to Moses,..
In a short time the bright cloud drew very close to earth and covered every bit of the sky from horizon to horizon…. Finally, we saw HIM—JESUS HIMSELF, the Son of God, in all of His glory. He was dressed in a robe of the whitest light. His hair was white and curly and lay on His shoulders. His feet had the appearance of fire. In His right hand there was a sharp sickle, and in His left a silver trumpet. His eyes were as a flame of fire. On His head He wore a double crown of glory; a crown within a crown. Words completely fail to describe this incredible scene.18
The time of celebration had begun when we would rest from war - when the whole land would rest. The promise of Jesus had been fulfilled. He had returned. He was bringing us home. He was ending the war. Now we would be with Him forever. A rich, amazing reward was before us. Now we would meet Jesus Himself, face to face!” 25
Dear Diary,
It’s me, Ash. Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve written. I’m 13 now. I couldn’t find my old journal, so I started this new one. It’s kind of fitting too because my life — everyone’s life, actually — has just gone through a huge change.
Jesus came back! No, I’m not kidding. He really did. Just like all the stories at church! First, there was this almighty trumpeting that made every person on Earth stop and look up. And I mean everyone — From Bourke to Bangladesh, Sydney to Seoul, Melbourne to Madrid — you get the point.
Then the sky ripped apart like someone tearing through a huge canvas. Actually, it reminded me of football players running through the large banner at the beginning of a game. Only it wasn’t a handful of guys, it was Jesus and about a zillion angels. Very cool! It brought the dead to life! They popped out of the ground and headed toward Jesus.
Everyone who loves Jesus floated up to meet Him in the air. I’m serious! I know it sounds crazy-wacky-zany, but it’s true! It’s like, people more attracted to Jesus than Earthly stuff had a new gravitational centre. Jesus got close enough to pull us to Himself, and that’s where we went! All my fears of the Second Coming completely disappeared when I saw Jesus. His presence gave everyone amazing peace.
So, anyway, now were making the 7-day trip to Heaven. There’s a pretty huge group of people here with me. We are zinging through the universe. Yesterday we went right through Orion’s belt! We’re traveling faster than I ever thought possible. Jesus is at the front, the angels are in the back and all of us Saved Ones (that’s what the angels call us—Saved Ones) are in the middle. It’s like a huge train headed to Heaven!
Jesus calls us by name. It is amazing! He knows each of us like we are his only child. On day 2 (we’re on day 5 of the trip right now) Jesus was working his way through the crowd and when he saw me, he smiled and said, “Hey Ash, enjoying the trip?” I was stunned! I couldn’t talk. I couldn’t even think of words to say. I just had this dumb super-smile plastered to my face while I nodded furiously. He gave me a hug and said we would have plenty of time to talk later. Then he said something that still makes me laugh. He held me at arms length and said, “Keep smiling, Ash!” Then He was gone.
Lots of stuff is different now. People who had scars, or sicknesses or anything else physically or even mentally wrong with them, are perfectly whole now. People who haven’t seen each other in years (because they died or were separated by war—that kind of stuff) are finding each other and having massive celebrations. Right after we lifted off the ground, guardian angels plucked up the resurrected babies (that had died before growing up) and flew them straight to their mothers. That was amazing to watch. Such joy!
It all seems impossible. But it’s real! I can’t wait to see Heaven!
Entry 2 - AA01, Day 11
Dear Diary,
Wow! Heaven is amazing. If I knew a better word than “amazing” I would use it. It’s like nothing I have ever seen or even imagined! I’ve been here for 4 days now and this was the first chance (and I mean the very first!) to actually sit and write. It has been intense!
The day after my last entry we started seeing a faint glow in the distance. I thought it was another star—we saw a lot of stars along the way—but it didn’t go past like all the others. It just kept getting brighter and brighter. Slowly it dawned on us that we were seeing Heaven.
Now that I’m here, I can tell you: It is bright!
Oddly, there’s no sun. The only star around here is God (He’s a superstar!) and all the light comes from Him. Heaven is a giant cube. Imagine a huge hollow Rubik’s Cube floating in space. God’s in the middle sitting on His throne and light is gushing from Him in every direction. There’s a wide glassy-surfaced river flowing out of the base of the throne. This ‘River of Life’ flows under a massive tree with roots growing on both sides of the river. It’s called the ‘Tree of Life’ and has a different kind of fruit every month and enough fruit for everyone to have a piece whenever they want one! So, to sum up; the ‘River of Life’ flows from the ‘Throne of Light’ through the ‘Tree of Life.’ It’s like heaven’s own tongue-twister!
This is where it starts getting weird, or at least very hard to explain. Even though it is a cube, there are foundations—twelve of them—and they are each made from a different kind of gemstone and each have the name of a different disciple written on them. On the surfaces of this Heavenly cube, there are pure-gold streets (that you can sort of see through) lined with houses. One of the houses belongs to my family and all our relatives live nearby. Each street is crazy-long and goes from one edge of a cube-side to the other edge. At the end of each golden street there is a huge gate. And each gate is made of a single pearl. The first time I saw one of these gates, my immediate thought was, “how big are the oysters around here?”
Everything here blows my mind! Here’s the trippiest thing I’ve seen so far; when the light from God’s throne hits the foundations it takes on the colour of that stone. This produces the most amazing rainbow—but it’s straight, not curved. God’s light takes on the colour of whatever it goes through. Come to think of it, the same is true with people. Any goodness that shines out of us is God’s light taking on our uniqueness and personality. Pretty cool!
It’s so awesome to think I get to live here for a thousand years!
Entry 3 - AA01, Day 15
Entry 5 - AA1001, Day 62