THE UNTOLD NATIVITY STORY [PART I]

A lone angel flew at lightning speed past the first cloud cluster with his sword drawn. His brazen chest was

about 4 ft. wide… a streak of light trailed him as he flew past the observer… He dipped low and disappeared behind a second cloud cluster. Instants later he slowed down in front of a legion of angels floating behind the cluster.

They were all broad chested and wore shiny bronze armour on their stainless white garbs. Their swords where all sheathed but they had their hands on the hilts. The combined glory of all their swords would have attracted unwanted notice, had they been drawn. 

“They approach” the lone angel, Ariel, told the leader of the legion… the leader was none other than Michael… the Prince of angels… third in command of heaven’s host… glorious in his gait and beautifully fierce 

“And the woman?” Michael asked in a soft stern voice 

“The legion guarding her is well hidden from the dragon’s view” Ariel reported 

“Let’s make Our Lord proud” Michael stared at all the angels stationed over the skies of Palestine. This was the most important mission of the age. Their master was about to be born as man and the dragon was aware of the plan by now. Their duty was to decimate the dragon’s horde… the first legion that Ariel had passed earlier on was stationed to protect the messiah and his mother… and there was a third legion – their mission, covet… 

Then the woman screamed in birth pangs… the clouds spun in response to her screams and she came into view. She was wrapped up with the sun which made her skin twinkle like galaxy cluster of stars. Her feet were spread apart by the moon’s radiance. Her arms and legs were covered in a shiny white garment…

Then the dragon arrived at the girth of the blazing sun… burning sulphur flowed forth from his nostrils as he raged. His hordes could not come near the heat of the sun… the few that attempted had their wings set ablaze and fluttered away. 

The woman screamed again and the dragon responded with a heart wrenching shriek, followed by a rumbling growl… it was obvious the dragon was waiting for the child to be born… his burning eyes mirrored the glare of the sun… oblivious of the legion of angels behind the thick cloud cluster just a few miles from the sun. 

Then a trumpet blast rent the sub-silence of the heavens… it was like a peeling thunder wrapped in a war cry… a storm roused by the fluttering wings of two legions of angels followed suit… and the dragon spun around in surprise…

The Untold Nativity Story continues... look out for Part II

ASSASSIN'S CREED

The timing was perfect… Whisker stood perfectly still as he observed The Job. His black spandex garbs

embraced the darkness that the crowded wardrobe offered. He was in the suits section and knew he wouldn’t have any problems executing this… yet, there was this edgy air in the atmosphere.

The Job approached the wardrobe to hang his suit and Whisker retrieved his jagged Bowie knife from the scabbard… the order had read “GUTTURAL AND BLOODY… and bring evidence”… Whisker intended to do just that even though he preferred not having contact with jobs… The Agency paid well, so sniping would have to wait for the next job… 

The Job pulled out a hanger… Whisker eased forward… his grip on the Bowie taut

“Hi” The Job said, throwing Whisker off balance “How long have you been here?”

Whisker wasn’t sure if The Job was talking to him or communicating with someone else… but there was no one else in the room, and The Job wasn’t wearing any communicating device…

 “Whisker, right? That’s what The Agency calls you” The Job said as he hung the blazer and walked towards his dressing mirror… leaving Whisker in a mind mud.

 In all his years of executing jobs, Whisker had never seen or heard about anyone act so calmly in the face of death… and Whisker had been an executioner for approximately 22 years… He started out as a government executioner… and as the case always is, time came for him to be silenced but he dropped out of the radar completely. 

Four years later he resurfaced as a freelance assassin listed on The Agency’s yellow pages… most ruthless and particularly keen on jobs that had corrupt government officials as targets. When he received this assignment he had been told that The Job was a preacher with a 9, 000-seater auditorium. The preacher’s messages were thwarting the passage of an “evil” bill in the senate and the committee needed him out of the way.

“I heard the assassin’s creed allowed for a retirement plan… what’s yours?” The Job (Preacher) continued as he pulled off his wrist watch and dumped it on the mirror desk. The Preacher sank on the bed and beckoned Whisker to come out. Whisker had no idea what pulled him out but he found himself stepping out of the wardrobe into the poorly lit room – the only source of illumination was the bedside lamp.

“The Committee sent you, right?” The Preacher patted his bed and Whisker sat down… Whisker could not fathom where the tears came from, but they flowed freely… he struggled to maintain his composure but bawled instead… his heart gave him away… somehow he knew there was a force that had overwhelmed him, yet knew not what force it was…

He nodded in response to The Preacher’s question 

“Too bad” The Preacher shook his head in pity “they picked the wrong preacher… son, it’s time for you to come home… Jesus is knocking at the door of your heart… the emotions you are experiencing are your sins struggling to gain elbow room” 

Finally, Whisker stuttered amidst sobs “what do I do?”

“Repeat after me” The Preacher replied “Dear Father…” 

***

It doesn’t matter what you have done or where you have been, Jesus has been to the worst place ever for you… and His arms are wide open to welcome you home… Come home, wherever you are!

PURPLE HEART

I don’t remember dying… but I remember lying on the hospital bed… awaiting transition 

I wasn’t that old… maybe a hundred and a few toppings… but I had lived a great life… in the jungles of Somalia… the deserts of Sudan… the roughies of Congo… and the heat of Kenya. The beautiful thing is most of my peers would not even remember that I once existed… not because I had not thought about leaving behind empires and legacies… but because I knew all earthly empires and legacies eventually fade away. 

I had forsaken all my PhDs, my investments, and my wealth at the age of 52… when it occurred to me that I would always want more despite the apparent sufficiency… avarice was and is an inherent strand in the human DNA… the unregenerate… and I wasn’t going to leave on like that. 

So I had taken up my cross and not only sponsored missions but volunteered for every mission I sponsored... the complex newness that came over me was beyond the principles of quantum physics and philosophical dissertations… I was a new man, heaping my treasures in heavens… trading the currency of faith for the souls I reached out to… 

“Hey” I heard that all so familiar voice that you could never get used to “Welcome Home…” he continued and when I spun round my aged knees buckled (despite the new strength that surged through them)… 

I fell in awe, not quite sure if standing in the presence of “Greatness” was appropriate… I looked… but it felt like I could never exhaust the vista of his face… 

“My Lord” I uttered with a voice lost in emotions… 

He smiled “I am not He… I am Michael” he came over to me and helped me up… “Please rise… I am at your service” 

If Michael was this beautiful how entrancing would My Lord be…? Hitherto, everything was all white, but the moment he took my hands, the true nature of my whereabouts was revealed to me… now I grasp what Paul meant when he said “the man beheld things that he’s not allowed to say”… not because his voice failed him or he was banned from saying anything… the words to communicate them just didn’t exist. 

It wasn’t about the streets of gold… gold here is the least of awes… allow me the youthfulness of using the word “Dude”… Earth is a mangled work of art compared to this… just pacing this streets alone was enough to pleasure me for an eternity… my whole body wept in bliss as we were transported through space without moving our limbs… 

Then we arrived the throne room… words do also fail grey hairs… sensations too wild to be imagined by the best of authors wracked my body when I beheld My Lord sitting at the right hand of My Lord… both were wrapped in Light… strong enough to shield Jehovah from my view but subtle enough to let me experience Him…

Oh! What glory treaded my cells… my body burned with so many tender emotions that I fell flat and moaned in awe… “glory… glory… glory…glory”

Then I felt my Lord stand above and when I lifted my head… I saw… I saw… I saw those golden holes in his hands as he held a crown over me…

“In Sudan I saw you” He smiled as he said this and I knew life “In Somalia you fed me… In Kenya, you visited me in prison, in Congo you clothed me… and in Nigeria you gave it all up… I was there son… I was there” 

I opened my mouth to say something… anything… but only tears bubbled out

“Well-done” he continued “here”… and he placed the crown on my head 

I don’t know how long it took for you to realize that earth is just a transitory phase… but I want to encourage you to keep faith… and set your eyes on the glory that awaits… It’s beautiful beyond your comprehension of beautiful 

And if you haven’t come to the knowledge of Christ yet, hop out of that path to eternal doom… don’t miss this awe for anything on earth…

I am… doesn’t really matter… but I am dropping this note from heaven… the awe here is inexplicable...

THEY MATTER

Our eyes met briefly and I quickly averted mine because I couldn’t stand the waves of disgust that radiated from Temi’s eyes towards me. As I hurried past, I could feel his eyes boring my back from across the road. Was it my fault that he didn’t see any sense in becoming born again?

 Then he called my name. But I wouldn’t turn around. The animosity that had grown between us in the past two weeks, since I had found Christ was ripe enough to spark a tribal conflict. So I hastened my steps, knowing he would soon cross the road and try to snuff out the distance between us. 

Just three weeks ago, Temi was a great friend… back when we ran short cyber scams together.

Then Christ found me and Temi refused to be found. I tried introducing Christ to him, but he repeatedly asserted that this “born again crap” was a long term scam by pastors. So I let him be.

Until today, I hadn’t seen him in about a week despite the fact that we lived on the same street. You are right; I was avoiding him for my own sake. Hanging out with my past wasn’t healthy for my present. I even ceased praying for him because I felt he ridiculed my God every time we talked. 

Then I heard tired screeching, people screaming and metal crush bone. All the sounds were coming from behind me. They were very close. I hopped over the gutter to safety before turning to see what caused the commotion. 

Twenty meters from me, a danfo bus lay smoking, its fender and front windscreen thrust inwards by a cement mixer. The accident was close to a construction site. The screaming onlookers were not concerned about the state of the bus. Several hands were trying to drag a lifeless body from under the mangled danfo. The head was under the right front tire. The body wore the same clothes that Temi wore and my heart failed. 

I couldn’t breathe because my system had transitioned into involuntary shut down… As I had predicted, Temi was crossing over to meet me and had met the unplanned journey to eternity. Thank God I am born again… 

Who am I kidding? That guy just missed heaven because I wouldn’t be more persistent… because I was trying to protect my Christianity by avoiding his negative influence… Perhaps if I had spent more time in prayer for him, I would have reached Him. I was the only one who could have reached him… Who knows if he was destined to be the next Billy Graham?

Don’t bother about my name; all that matters is that someone who could have been a great vessel now wallows in eternity because I didn’t persist! Who has been placed around you that only you can reach? Time is ticking…

Don’t be so concerned about your Christianity that your neglect the ones that matter… the lost ones