Episode 4

There appeared a man in from of them, disrobed, beaten, bruised, bleeding and hanging on a tree. Part of the skin was literally hanging, attached to the body by only a shred of skin. There were nails going through the hands, each hand stretched so far from the other, that the ribs were visible. Someone could even say they saw the man’s lungs as he stretched upward to sneak a breath. There was a big nail holding both feet together. Every time he stretched to try and catch a breath, the hole in the feet seemed to enlarge. The sight was so pathetic, the pain and the agony was so much that non dared to take a second look.

‘This is why I froze,’ said John as he broke down in tears, ‘why would someone do this to another person? How could they?’

‘The Curator told me that everything that we are seeing was done to that baby for us,' said Martin, 'He said that we each must carry our own cross. That is the only way to go over the altar.’

'For some weird reason, it looked like the nails were not the ones holding the man up on the tree,' responded John.

Just as if there was a change of scenery as they made the next step, he walked off the cross. The crown of thorns turned into a crown of glory, the nakedness turned into a robe of righteousness, the and pain became joy and peace unspeakable full of glory. When he spoke, the words of his mouth were like a double-edged sword dipped in golden oil and set on fire. The He came to them and said,

‘That was the price for you to walk through the dimensions. I had to give up all glory, become like man, die like a man and then was raised up to glory. This is a journey for the righteous priests and kings. I took the first step for you, now you must take the rest of the steps.’

‘You mean we all have to die like that?’ John stammered.

By this time their knees were knocking so hard that they could be heard yards away.

‘Don’t fear John,' the Man said, 'I took the hardest part for you, removed most of the traps and paid the price. Now all you must do is walk the journey keeping on the straight narrow road.’

‘What do you mean by straight narrow road?’ Asked Martin.

‘The Curator is my Spirit. He will guide you in all your ways. Where I am is where he is leading you. Listen to Him.’

Just as fast as the vision appeared, it disappeared as they took the third step. Before they knew it, the altar which they had fretted so much, was right behind them.

‘Whew…’ sighed John, ‘I couldn’t have imagined it. Was that what was scaring us to death?’

‘All we had to do was have faith,’ retorted Martin, ‘just like the Curator said. Wow!’

On the other side of the altar however, it was a completely different story. Fear had gripped each of them, wondering,

‘What has happened,’ one asked.

‘Those guys were right in front of us, how could they just disappear?’ another retorted.

‘Curator, what was that fire?’ one asked.

‘What kind of fire consumes a whole human being in an instant’ another retorted.

On and on went the argument. One claiming one thing and another claiming something completely different. At this point the Curator said in a still small voice, ‘Who is next?’

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