Faith

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(Continued from 'Part Five: Sleeping Through
the Alarm on Judgment Day')

[Author's Note: Spider silk is very strong
and according to experts, on weight
basis, is stronger than steel.]

In Memory of Julian and Elaine.

Michael wasn't sure about the prospect of handling the spider,
which was now contentedly crawling about one of his cousin's
mounds of dirty laundry. As a Fighting angel in service to the
Lord, he was only scared of one thing: spiders. He knew,
however, that he would do anything to be of service to the Father's
Kingdom. And, right now, that meant doing whatever was needed
to help Joach get ready for Last Call Day. "Who's going to
repair it, Angie?" He asked with a droopy smile.

"Well, ALL of us, of course! What did you think, Michael?"
Angela pursed her lips, and knelt by the open box flaps.
"See? Here it is, guys! It's pretty huge, huh?"

Her three cousins all peered into the dusty opening; Michael,
frowning good naturedly, was the tallest of the group. "Angie,
I really needed to be getting my gear on....you know. I'm not
even dressed for Battle, yet. I'm late as it is."

"Oh, Michael! Don't worry! You're not going to have to touch
the spider! What a big baby you are!" Angela pulled up one
satiny sleeve of her purple robe, and reached down into the carton.
Very carefully, she moved her petite fingers around the dusty
surface, and began lifting out the silky web. The others all
backed away. Joach even fell into one of his piles of Christmas
CD's.

"Jo, are you ever going to clean up this mess?" Gabriel helped
his cousin up, and almost slipped on two plastic CD holders.
"Maybe you need to have a garage sale, or something."

"What's that?" Joach looked over his round shoulder to see
what his dog was up to; Josh was still outside on the balcony,
and barking his droopy-eared head off. Poor Josh would
be banded outside, until the disreputable shofar could be fixed
and ready for Battle.

"I don't know, but I think it's something that people do. They
open up part of their house, and sell everything."

"And then what?" Joach climbed over a couple more piles of
stuff in search of a fresh box of Cinnamon Cherios.

"Well, they get some money. I think, then, they go out and
buy more things."

"Why?" Joach sniffed the top of the milk carton from his
small fridge. He shrugged to himself, and then poured a
whopping full into his favorite cereal bowl: blue ceramic,
painted with the faces of sorted puppies, and from Father.

Gabriel shrugged, shaking his long curly hair. "Who knows?
People like to have lots of treasures. They like to own many things."

"I thought that everything on earth and Heaven belonged to
Father?" Joach crunched on the Cherios; a big drop of sugary
milk slid down his double chin, and onto his wrinkled sleeping gown.

"I know. It's kinda sad. People have so many gifts from Father;
why do they hurt each other trying to get MORE things? That's
why we are here - to help them learn about His Love."

Everybody was quiet for a minute, thinking of all of the Unsaved.
The Lord had come to offer Himself, and they only longed for
more.....things. Soon, in a matter of moments, it would be too
late for them. The Last Trumpeting Call was a time of great joy
- and great sorrow for the Father. In just a matter of precious
moments........

But, for now, there was work to do.

"Let's go, guys!" Angela briskly broke into the gloomy silence.
She was already gently spreading the silky spider's web out onto
Joach's gold-speckled carpet. Everything about Angela's movements
was so meticulous and loving, that Joach half expected the web's owner
to come crawling out of a mound of dirty laundry, to watch all
the busywork.

"Do we know how to do this, Angie?" Michael had trouble squatting
down next to his cousins; his gigantic muscles and huge folded
feathers kept knocking over books and bags of chips, from Joach's
coffee table. "Neither me nor Gabe have ever done this before,
although I don't know about Jo."

"Who, me? I never even saw a shofar before just a couple months, ago!
Father came to me one night, outside the Garden
while I was on duty, and just gave it to me. He told me that I
would be needing it very soon. Then, we talked for awhile; He
picked up Josh, let him lick all over His Face, and whispered to him - although, I don't know what they talked about." Joach wiped his milky chin, and crunched on another spoonful of Cherios.

"Hey, Jo! What about your Flaming Sword? We still haven't figured
what to do about that." Gabriel held the outer end of Joach's
broken shofar carefully, in both of his big hands. He stood, patiently,
waiting for Angela, and watching her busily laying out the silky threads.

"Oh, THAT!" Angela gently blew on the flattened web, getting rid
of some dust from the cardboard box. Then, she held out her
arms to Gabriel.

"Uh, you heard about that, Angie?" Joach held a big spoonful of
milky Cherios halfway to his dripping mouth. "When did YOU hear
about it?"

"Jo, would you come over here, please? And you better finish that
stuff before you slip your gown on! Where is it, anyway? Did
you press it? Remember? I told you to, about two months ago!"

Michael, holding the mouth end of the jagged shofar for his
cousin while he was eating his cereal, looked up at the spotted ceiling
in an expression of disbelief. "Angie, have you ever seen Jo
press ANYTHING? I don't even know if he could find his iron,
in here, what with all this stuff around. Hey, Jo? What's that
stain up there?" He pointed his handsome chin toward a rather
dubious, motley-looking spot.

"Spaghetti." Joach followed his cousin's eyes, and nodded.
"I was making it, a while back, and left the pot going a little too long."

"How did it get all the way over here?" Michael could have reached
up, and touched the stain, being so tall, but he wanted to be extra
careful with Jo's trumpet.

Joach hung his round head, just enough to show a bit of embarrassment.
"Well, it's kind of a long story. Father told me I could have it painted
over, if I wanted to, but I said that it was okay the it was."

Amazed, even after all this Time, that their Heavenly Father would
be concerned about sloppy spaghetti spots on her disheveled cousin's
living room ceiling, Angela shook her head slowly. Her halo, shining
and as diminuitive as its owner, didn't budge a wit.

"Jo....? Shouldn't we get going, looking for that Sword?" Gabriel
watched, fascinated, as Angela placed the piece of horn just so,
and then, very delicately, began to wrap tiny threads of the
spider's silk around it.

"Michael! Come give me your other piece, please!" Angela pursed
her lips, again. "Gabe, we don't have time for all that now. You're
just going to have to help Jo find that Sword, later. Jo, how did
you lose it, again? I can't remember you telling me."

Joach was very confused. He couldn't remember telling Angela
ANYTHING about his lost Flaming Sword. Shrugging good-naturedly,
he just accepted the fact that his cousin was the Heavenly yenta.

Michael slowly made his enormous way through Joach's messy floor,
holding the other piece of the broken horn like a tiny, fragile infant.
"For all we know, it's probably somewhere in the middle of Jo's
dirty laundry."

Both Gabriel and Joach immediately looked down around their
bare feet. Nope. Wasn't there.

"Angie? Can I let Josh in, now? He's starting to sound hoarse,
out there!"

The basset's low rumbling "BARK! BARK! BARK!" hadn't stopped
in the slightest.

"NO! DON'T YOU DARE!" Angela, with the precise movements
of the Chief Director of the Early Morning Choir, pressed Michael's
half of the shofar onto the miraculous spider's silk. "All we need is
him nosing around this sticky web. He's fine! Maybe, he'll see
Benjamin's cat out there, on the balcony, again."

"How late IS it, Angie?" Michael bent down, in order to whisper
to his cousin. He didn't want Joach to hear him, and get weepy
again. For the moment, their much shorter, plumper Family member was
very happy, just crunching on his Cinnamon Cherios, and making
funny faces at the drooling pooch, through his paw-and-nose-
smeared glass door.

Angela didn't appear rushed, at all. "Father is always on time,
Michael. He knows everything. And remember, His Time is all the
time we need to know."

TO BE CONTINUED..........................

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