Chapter 2 -- The Whirlwind

Doc and I started to look at the walls of the whirlwind and were soon looking closely at the Spire, but I couldn't get out of my mind what I had just seen in the throne room of heaven. It was just too much for me to simply lay aside and look at the Spire.

I closed my eyes and recalled the scene around the throne. I could feel the love pouring out from God that was intense and bright and yet filled with soft warmth. But the light shining out from God was so intense that it was hard to see him clearly. The four living creatures were different though, and I kept remembering the look in their eyes.

It was clear they knew things that no one else knew and I wondered what they had seen in God that no one else had ever seen. What gave them the deep confidence that shined through their eyes? What would they tell me if I could talk to them for just a minute?

But even more than the living creatures, the thought that kept repeating in my mind was the look of all those angels turning at one time. There is simply nothing like millions upon millions of angels all so close that they were packed in tight and their expressions magnified by it.

The expression of a simple smile that erupted across the countless millions of angels was like a giant contagious wave and was something I didn't think I'd ever get over. I smiled just thinking about it. How could I not?

"What is it Princess?" Doc asked having noticed I was not paying attention to the Spire but was lost in another world.

"The angels Doc. Do you remember how the angels looked?" I said with my eyes still closed and still savoring the sight of them in my heart and mind.

"Do you mean Arcadriel? It was the longest I've ever seen him stay at one place! I watched him closely."

"What did you see Doc?"

"At one point, I saw him turn his head and look at me raising his eyebrow and giving a slight smile. I knew he was happy to be assigned to protect me, and I felt so privileged that such a mighty angel should be the one God gave me. I don't know why I should deserve such a mighty angel."

"I know what you mean Doc. I don't understand why I was picked for this either. It is just so much greater than anything I've ever dreamed of."

I paused with my eyes still closed and seeing that smile wash over the sea of angels. It spread like a wildfire and grabbed the hearts of the angels setting them ablaze.

"You're seeing something, aren't you?" Doc said.

"Yes Doc, I am seeing how the Lamb of God affects the angels. It is like they have waited for all of eternity for this. It is like they are thrilled beyond measure. I can see it in their eyes. I can see it across their faces. I see their hope, their joy, their sense of wonder at what the lamb has done!"

Doc stayed quiet as he could see I was truly experiencing something very special.

"Doc! Do you feel it? Do you feel the wave of joy running across their faces? It is like a wind that blows joy deep into your heart! It is like a tsunami that runs deep and rises up just as it comes close to you! Do you see it?"

"Yes... I hadn't noticed it before... You're right... Oh!"

Doc and I stood there in the whirlwind of God's glory longer than I had any idea just reveling in the wonder of the excitement of the angels.

I let the smile of the angels penetrate deep into my heart. I let it change me and let it alter my thinking of what really is important. What the lamb had done in balancing the weights of all the flaws of man was far more significant than I had ever thought. It was far bigger than I had ever realized.

And I knew deep down how important our new mission was. This was not just a simple exercise in building demolition. This was more than freeing the prisoners in the land of Adoran. This was preventing the enemy from undoing all that had been done.

This was big and I just couldn't get the look of all those angels out of my mind. I couldn't possible let them down. Their smiles depended on what I would do.

And then the full weight of what I had been asked to do hit me. I fell to my knees in the center of the whirlwind of God's glory and cried out to God to find someone else for this task. I was but a girl! Couldn't he see that it was asking too much?

I wept at the enormity of it all and how small I felt. I just couldn't believe God wanted me to do this. Who did he think I was?

And then I felt something change. I no longer heard the whirlwind swirling around me. Instead, I felt grass under my knees and I knew I was no longer in the hidden place of Adadore. I had been taken somewhere else.

I opened my eyes and looked up not knowing what to expect. I saw I was in a small park and I immediately knew where I was, for I had been there before. I was in the same park where I had met Jesus in heaven. The air was so clear and the colors of the grass were so deep with many hues of green.

Had I died and gone to heaven?

"It's heaven!" Doc said still in the pouch that hung strapped around me. "We've gone to heaven!"

And then Jesus materialized out of thin air right in front of Doc and I. His smile undid my heart and I jumped up and grabbed onto him and cried.

He wrapped his arms around me and hugged me, and then stroked my hair with his gentle hand.

"Princess," he spoke to me. "Have I not always been there with you? Have I not helped you when you needed help?"

"But this... this is so much bigger," I said between sniffles.

"That is why I gave you the first mission to go on. It has prepared you for this one. You too Doc."

"But so much depends on this one!" I said looking into his eyes. Just seeing his love for me strengthened and encouraged me. One look in his eyes changes everything, and he didn't have to say anything.

Jesus saw I was encouraged and hugged me again.

"Remember Princess," he said holding me back so he could look into me eyes once again. "There will always be enough. Whatever you need. Whenever you are in deepest need. There will always be enough from me to get you through anything if you only keep trusting in me and call out to me."

"I will." I said simply. I was so thankful that he had helped me like this. I really needed it.

"By the way," Jesus said looking coyly. "I have a friend of yours that insisted on seeing you when I told him you would be visiting for a little while."

Jesus stepped back and let Shawsis through. He barked and laughed as I knelt down and hugged him.

"Shawsis! I'm so glad to see you!"

Shawsis barked and licked me but I hadn't heard dog talk in a while so I wasn't sure if I heard him right.

"He says he's very happy to see you too!" Doc said helping me out. "He didn't think he would get to see you for some time."

"I fell over on the grass and let Shawsis run around me licking me and barking. It was so much fun that it took my mind off of the enormity of what I had to do.

It went on for some time until we all just laid there on the grass and the next thing I knew I found myself waking up back in the whirlwind. I looked up from the floor and saw something peculiar on the Spire that I hadn't seen before.

"Look Doc! Look at that! Did you see that before?"

I pointed to what looked like a small hole about two thirds of the way up the otherwise smooth and unbroken surface of the tall tower.

"I saw it, but I just thought it was a defect or some glitch in the way the whirlwind shows us what's there."

"But I couldn't see it when I was standing up. I can only see if I look up at it. What do you think it is?"

"Who knows Princess? I wouldn't give it much thought. Perhaps it's just an exhaust vent or something."

"But no, look at it more closely. Don't you see a light shining into it?"

"Well... I guess a little, but isn't that just a reflection or something?"

"No, look closer. I think that hole contains one of those lenses like I saw down in the machine rooms I was in, and it's reflecting sun light or something."

"I didn't see those lenses. Weren't they bigger than this? This looks too small."

"That's it! It isn't small. The Spire is much bigger than we thought! It's huge!"

"Well maybe, but I don't follow..."

"Look!" I shouted interrupting Doc. "Do you see how that light is reflected down towards the mountain?"

"I think..."

"There must be a tunnel that leads to that point. Maybe it leads..." I said pausing in mid-sentence to think about it.

"Maybe it leads through the mountains?" Doc said seeing if that was what I meant.

"Yeah... Maybe if we went back through those tunnels under the Nephilim markers, we could find our way over to that tunnel."

"But wasn't it down there where you were attacked by all those demons. You don't want to go down there again do you?"

"Why not? We just need to pray before we go down!" I said feeling fairly confident that there would be no problem.

"I don't know Princess. Maybe it would be safer to go over the mountains."

"Over them?! Doc! You were the one who said you might freeze going that way!

"I'd rather freeze than be attacked by thousands of demons that I can't even see!"

"But it won't be like that this time, I'm sure of it. I really learned my lesson last time and anyway, they only attacked me, not anybody else."

"Maybe not, but you did. You haven't forgotten how you killed Armeth's brother have you? And Abason was nearly killed too!"

"No, I haven't forgotten Doc. But we weren't prepared last time."

"And this time Adamea is not with us any more. He was the one who..."

"I know Doc, I know. You don't have to keep reminding me!"

"Well, maybe there's some other way then..." Doc said as he looked into the whirlwind and tried to find some way that would avoid going where all the demons were.

"No, this is it Doc. I just know it. We just have to pray before going down there. I just hope we can get this over quickly."

"Quickly? I don't think anything about this is going to be easy or quick."

"Maybe not, but I can't wait to get to that Spire and find out what's going on there."

"I just hope we make it there."

"We will Doc. We will. Trust me."

And with that I stepped out of the whirlwind of God's glory and walked back into the palace of Adadore.