Cubicle 32: Come   

 

            “COME!” 

 

What?  Who was that so early in the morning?  And come where?  And why so freakin’ loud?!!"  Loud enough to wake me up.  Annoyed, I tried to return back to sleep when I heard it yet again.  “Come!”  I sat up in bed to peer-out through the opening of my cubicle – seeing no one.

 

Wait!  What was that a dark scuttling shadow?  I jerked up when I saw or thought I saw something out of the corner of my eye.  Were my eyes playing tricks on me?"

 

Before I could complete the thought forming in my mind I heard the voice yet again – “Come!”  This is ridiculous.  "One of the women must be playing some childish stupid game, in the middle of the night and it’s pissing me off."

 

Deciding to drag myself out of bed to find who the guilty party was, I turned to the side of my bed intending to slip on my sandals when I saw it - a swirling abyss where the floor should be?

 

A dark swirling mass!    The force of it pulling me in!  So terrified I was that my screams became lodged in my throat.  All the while I struggled to fight against whatever force this was but I knew I had been caught in a web of gravitational energy.  The more I tried to fight against it the more the force exerted its hold on me.  

 

Duly frightened, all forms of questions began to flood my brain.  "I wondered if I would ever return to my cubicle.  Was this my fate?  In the morning the residents would find no clue as to my whereabouts.  Would anyone call the police?  For what?  There was no evidence of a struggle.   Besides, I was an adult.   People in shelters come and go as they please."

 

My disappearance would be the end of me.  An unsolved mystery.  An unsolved disappearance.  No doubt, rumors would spread, though none of them true.  Who would believe I fell into a dark abyss that suddenly appeared out of nowhere.  A black hole in cubicle 32?!

 

I gasped to see my feet disappearing into the darkness.  Searching for something to grab hold onto, nothing was in reach.  I sank deeper and deeper into oblivion, like quicksand.   I was so frightened that my eyes automatically shut tight.  Trying to recite what I could of the twenty-third Psalm, the only words that I could utter were “ The Lord is my Shepherd.  The Lord is my Shepherd.  The Lord is my… “ 

 

When suddenly everything stopped, and I was no longer swirling in an abyss but instead stood frozen.  Eyes closed tight – too terrified to open them.  Afraid of what I might see.

 

Cautiously, through squinted eyes, I sensed exactly where I had landed, and knew I didn’t want to be there.  It was the replication of a dream I had as a sophomore in college.  A nightmare really.  Nothing in my life had been as terrifying as that dream, even after I awoke.  Yet, here I was.  Over a decade later!

 

Looking down I felt the cold dampness of the ground that began to burrow into my bones like steel rods of something barren and empty – a form of life without hope.  It felt like a battleground from over a billion years ago with a determined darkness trying to penetrate my very being. Searching for a thought that would make me into something that was no longer human.

 

I thought myself to be standing on grass but it turned out to be more like shredded pieces of paper only sharp.  Dull reflections of the light emitting from them pierced through an unknown source of light.  A smoky blue haze revealing the stuff to be remains of empty soda cans! 

 

This included primordial rust, a deterioration that began long before any man, woman or child existed.  The basis of the world.  Perpetual death and destruction.  The things we so zealously fought to obtain.  The very essence of death, evil, and sin. 

 

The things of the world that have no ability to choose to receive and possess the Holy Spirit ends up here.  The expensive cars.  The big fancy houses.  The corner offices.  The huge bank accounts.  The youthful bodies of flesh.  All decomposing.  Unable to hold the essence of His Spirit. 

 

I felt as though I was walking through a graveyard. Yet, there were no graves or headstones.  Even though the park didn’t really look ominous but simply like most parks at night lit up by the moon as fog hung in the air.  However, it wasn’t what I saw years ago that terrified me but what I felt that night so many years ago.

 

Nonetheless, what I had sensed, though not hearing or seeing anything other than the dark silhouettes of trees appearing black in the night - was hell.  Evil enveloped the place.  There had been nowhere to run then. I felt eternally trapped.

 

I remember thinking how the place consumed death.  All sins resided here.  Their spirit crawling everywhere.  Here in this benign looking place.  This beautiful park at night could have easily been a place of romance or a fun carnival.  Yet, it belied any such relief to my mind.

 

“What?”  I gasped in a hushed sound.  What was that eerie sound?

 

Since returning here I’ve become much more observant of details I missed before.  Yet, I still hadn’t identified what that eerie sound was?  Perhaps wailing?  Gnashing teeth? Like I would know what gnashing teeth sounded like.

 

The eerie sound grew louder and louder with each step I took.  Yet, each time I stopped to look around, so did the sounds.  Other than that, the place was without sound.    

             

Back as a teenager, the seemingly unwilling rising of the sun was the only thing that brought relief.  Unfortunately, after that first experience I choose to do nothing more.  I did not seek for answers or advice.  My only goal then was to stay awake until the morning.  Morning brought the release of fear.  In truth I wanted to forget and move on with my life.               

 

I was not privy to the details of the dream from years before, only that the sting of death had its grip on me.  Back then when I awoke from the terrifying experience I had asked my mom if I could get in bed with her but she had said no.  Even though I explained to her in hush tones, so as not to disturb her husband, that I had had a nightmare.  There had been a small chase lounge opposite her bed, and there I remained wide-awake until dawn - until the grip of fear had released its clutches. I had never had a nightmare before or since.

 

Now, through some incredible turn of fate, the fear no longer consumed me. I knew I was cloaked in the Holy Spirit.  The very Spirit of Christ.  This time when I looked down toward the ground, I could see words starting to form forming a glow along the ground where I stood.  I indeed was wrapped in an invisible cloak - the cloak of Jesus Christ.  Its hem glowed with the inscription “KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.” 

 

From the invisible cloak a light shone upon the ground, which turned the rusty metallic grass-like substances of soda cans into lush green grass.  However, as I removed my foot from its previous position, the grass recoiled into biting shards of cutting metal again.

 

Suddenly, a strong gust of wind came out of nowhere to reveal the gasping, gnawing and anguished spirits locked in this place for all eternity.  Writhing throughout the grounds of the park, were their sounds of torment.  Their torment of hopelessness.  

 

These were the sounds I had heard.  The sound of unrepentant souls.  I could clearly see them twisting and writhing about as hot molten sulfur erupted out of their mouths for never having spoken the Words of salvation. 

 

The desires God had placed in their hearts were now fated to be unquenchable for all eternity.  Yet, it had felt to me back then like a deep chilling iciness. Icy hate.

 

Just then a voice covered me in peace, hope, and unfailing love wrapping itself around me. 

 

The Lord had said, “Come” to me as He had said to Peter, as He has said to all of us.  I could now wear a cloak (invisible to physical eyes) of royal priesthood because I had Come!  I no longer needed to fear the sting of death or the sin of being unable to fulfill the law.    

 

It took my breath away when I realized I could have lived for all eternity in this place, had I not accepted the Salvation God offered, and the Sacrifice His Son was willing to make for me.

 

Slowly vanishing away I found myself returning back to cubicle 32 on my bed, filled with fear and trembling.  Knowing exactly what that truly meant, and tremendously grateful for it.