NOTE: This story is fiction, we must be clear about that. Therefore, it is not intended to represent Biblical teaching. Rather it is intended to convey an impression of what spiritual conflict is and what it looks like from our human point of view. As you will see, I have taken heavenly things and put them in a human context so that they can be communicated more easily in a narrative format. My prayer is that this story will entertain and cause us to think about what is going on around us, that we as followers of Jesus Christ might at least be more aware of the fact that things in this world are not always what they appear to be.
Everybody was filled with anticipation; today was the big day! Ever since we all got the word that God would be making a big announcement this morning, we were excited. What was he going to announce?
The only thing we knew for certain was that this was about something quite new, but what? I arrived at the assembly area early that day; in fact, I was there early enough to get a seat in the third row. A little way over to my left and two rows down were some really important angels, including the greatest of all, Lucifer, who was the most beautiful, the most brilliant and the most powerful of all of the angels of heaven… He was surrounded by his best friends, and believe me, this was a VIP group. I had seldom ever had an opportunity to see these angels so close up for any length of time, and that made the morning even more exciting for me.
Right at the appointed time, God entered the assembly. He wasted no time with pleasantries as he stepped up to the platform and began addressing the entire host of heaven. A hush fell upon the host, you could have heard a pin drop, and the air was filled with expectancy. God simply said, “And now, pay close attention and you will see something new, something quite new and remarkable.”
Then, he spoke another word and right before our eyes there appeared a vast array of light and matter that stretched out as far as we could see in every direction. As we looked more carefully, we could see galaxies of millions of stars, each enormous and shining brightly. Many of those stars had other celestial bodies around them, circling… what was this all about?
Then, God addressed us again, telling us that this was his new project; his new purpose; he called it the Universe. Unlike heaven itself, the Universe was physical, something that none of us quite understood at the beginning, something new, quite new. Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light on a faraway celestial body circling around one of the smaller suns… God saw and we all agreed that this was good.
Later that day, all were abuzz over this new Universe. What was it for, what did it mean? Nobody was quite sure; all we knew was that we were to be assembled for each of next five days to watch God continue this project… and I don’t know about anyone else, but I was really looking forward to seeing what he would do next. As the days passed, the word on the street was that God must be creating this Universe for Lucifer, who thought that it must be a reward for himself for all his eons of faithful service to God; after all he was the greatest of the angels. I began to hear rumors that he and his friends believed that he was just about like God, and that he should share power and rule with God; why this new Universe was starting to make sense! Even though God had never done anything like that before, why wouldn’t he recognize Lucifer now?
The center of his attention was that same small place we noticed on the first day. It was named the Earth, and on the sixth day, God made wondrous creatures, the likes of which we had never seen before. They were to live in what came to be called an “ecosystem” that none of us could quite fathom at first. And then it happened!
God made one more creature, but this time, he went down to the surface of the Earth and formed the creature from the ground with his own hands and breathed the breath of life into it; it came alive. There was something different about this creature, that was called Adam which means “mankind.” There was something about this Adam that reminded us of God, but I can’t quite say exactly what that was. Actually, there were two of them; they were the same and yet different in a way that none of us understood, and then God shocked everyone. He put the man in charge of the Earth!
An audible gasp came up from certain quarters in the host of heaven.
After that day’s work, God rested, but while he rested, much was going on. There were rumors that Lucifer and his friends were not pleased that God had placed Adam in charge of things on Earth. It was their thinking that Lucifer should be in charge on the Earth, since he had earned the right, and that Lucifer was on a par with God. I heard after some time that Lucifer had gone to discuss things with God, and that they had words…
To be continued…
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