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Chapter 6

THE ANGELIC EJECTION SEAT

or otherwise put,

The Commission Ceremony

Little A did a nose dive. It was surprising because he had not done so before; but it is really very simple to follow the angelic aerodynamics, even though it is not air, and should perhaps rather be called aether-dynamics, partly because it looks more interesting, especially with the diphthong, but chiefly because that includes a good word for the unknown, as lovers of nature once thought in our land, before now.

Assuredly Little A did not know, not being of a discursive mind in that kind of celestial thing, and being much more absorbed in the considerations of his own remarkable conversations with an earthling who, he understood, was one of a group of appalling people, sometimes shining ever so slightly in a dim sort of way, like lead in greasy mode, but not really too extraordinary. Such was his elation that he began to have visions of conceit, in which he took prominent parts in leading the more lustrous ones to the light, except that the professor did not seem particularly lustrous until the light hit him, and then of course it was only the light of the Lord.

As he pondered in this sort of apartheidic way (for it is high time we derived an adjective, and perhaps could prune it to apathedic, which sounds more like apathetic, which somehow fits in an ironic sort of way), he began to realise that his head was growing exceedingly large, and this made him top-heavy, so that it was most difficult to fly about without nose-diving, and as this was a new experience, his first example of it was dashing, but not in the sense his then current mood would have suggested.

In falling, he turned over and over, and this made him dizzy, so that when he hit the angelic equivalent of something hard, it hurt exceedingly, making him irritable, which led to a measure of self-assertion and believing in himself and all that sort of thing, which again led to the appalling confrontation which quickly followed.

The way it happened was this. An elderly angel, who must have sinned much to have received such a degree of angelic decrepitude, Little A thought, was moving stiffly about, fluttering feebly and eyeing all who were near with that sort of solemn and long look at which a Cocker Spaniel is so skilled. Feeling pained in no small degree, Little A looked up at the Eldange, as his name was, and met the gaze of that somewhat crotchety being, with just that degree of confrontational non-sympathy for which Eldange was unconsciously looking.

What are you staring at, flip artist! came the not especially heart-warming words of the old one.

I'll thank you to keep a civil tongue in your mouth, was the youthful response.

Dignified! aren't we, retorted the older. When I was younger, the sort of cocky, conceited,  self-affirming fidget that you resemble to a 't' would have been sent back to Nursery School in order to have more time to think about the possibility of growing up slightly.

You know, said Little A, we are a pair, for I have somehow become top-heavy and seem to spin like a ball as I go, whilst it seems for you to be that the issue lies in the mind, which apparently is spinning so fast that you do not even know which world you are in.

The glare of the older one consisted of something very like angelic radar, and left a scorch mark on Little A so deep, that he blushed as his own stupidity at not showing respect to the elders, however disrespectful they might be both to themselves, their calling and to him.

Tumbling away in shame and remorse, for he had become a Christian angel now, he found his head shrinking and decided then and there to seek interview with the Lord.

Oddly enough, as soon as he desired this, he found himself in a vast arena with thousands of angels with wings covering their feet, and a seraphic look suffusing the air mutually, until it seemed itself almost a vision. You are called! said one, and he was led to a great throne where was a light so dazzling that he had no option but to look down, but then he saw the feet of the one who sat, and there were marks on them where the nails had been.

Oh Christ, he cried, I am such a little angel, and already in my short time as an angel of God in the light, I have disgraced myself with pride and vanity, self-assertion and self-belief, and I am not worthy to be in your presence.

Then he suddenly collected himself and added, But I am thrilled to be here and thank you for the privilege of being called.

Do you now realise that you too are  a sinner, as those earthlings are, and that your task, already begun with the professor, is to lead them back to the image in which they were made, through the pardon purchased by the Lamb of God ? came a voice so multitudinous in conceptions and spiritual meanings, overtones and warm and challenging intimations that it was like a flood; and yet it was gentle, at the same time, like the lapping of the still waters of a lake on the shore; and again, it was like a wind breathing quietly but penetratingly in the lofty trees where it creates an atmosphere which matches the beauty about it.

I realise it at this very hour, responded Little A, and I am sorry for being so supercilious about my own new-found spirituality, and am thankful for being so utterly humiliated just now, for it was a necessary discipline and caution.

If then you can so readily fall, though I picked you up at once, do you not feel sorrow and grief for those for whom Christ died ? asked a cherubic angel.

It is strangely so even now in my spirit! replied Little A, though to be frank I had not thought much about this sort of thing before. It now comes into my thinking, feeling and envisagement like a flock of birds dancing, and it moves with thrilling measures of love that leave me slowly gaining awareness that it is the love of God in action, at work, in me towards them.

Then GO! came the voice of the Lamb, and help them, for angels are sent to minister to the heirs of salvation.

Is there any new message ? he asked.

None, for all is said, came the heavenly response; and adding is subtracting, like adding tar to a diamond; and subtracting is ruining, like removing zeros from a number, and then replacing them by making the non-zeros all zero, so that nothing comes of it.

Then how can I help them ?

Oh, Little Angel continued, forgive me, for of course what YOU have done and what YOU have given as Gospel and what has been given by your Spirit in the words of the Bible, this is already sufficient, and the way of life.

You are a quick learner for one so short a time out of Nursery School, came the Heavenly Voice, and this makes you wiser than thousands of university professors, seminary professors and specialists on earth, but not through your own wisdom, but through the truth. Go then and may your missions be helped, your ministrations fruitful and your heart be humble.

At this, there arose a seraphic song which was too beautiful to bear, so that Little A found himself weeping at the wonder of it all, since it made him seem close to death, and yet filled with life at the same time.

Suddenly all the scene was void, and he found himself looking at a new pair of wings, suitable for moving from the celestial regions to the terrestrial, though they retained full operational facility in either sphere.

Donning these in a way which seemed part of one long and continuing miracle, he decided to pray, and this he did until his heart was sober, his spirit groomed and his mind clear. It took a long time, and when he was ready, he found himself strangely in quite a different territory, all shaped to form a sort of precipice. He came to the top and suddenly a gust of special wind, known as the Sending Wind, blew him into such a journey as he had never imagined.

As he went, he pondered how apt the  Lord is, for it was no sooner that he fell than he was not only lifted up, but sent out; and then it occurred to him that it was a wonderful thing to be an angel close to the Lord, since there is action all the time, and no need to indulge in spiritual sicknesses, since health is always at hand. It had now, it seemed within him, been years since he had been so foolish as to be self-affirmatory, and he lost himself in the regions of delight in the Lord, and praised and worshipped Him who is for ever and ever, and was enraptured at the thought that now he too would live for ever, and this had become so natural seeming that any other thought seemed too childish, or even churlish to be fit even for the Nursery.

While however he was lost in thoughts of this kind, his new wings were flying on automatic pilot and he neared the earth, and using a lightning shaft, he descended quietly to a lake where the still was so vast that he fell asleep. When he awakened, he realised that he was invisible to mortals, since there passed by him  a group of youths, who almost stood on his wings; but they seemed somehow different, as if it would not make any difference, for their legs seemed like shadows, whilst made of material things, and their faces like mirrors, for you could read so much in them.

It is great to be so real! he thought, and then moved with the group, and listened to their conversation.

I told him, said one, to go to hell, and he didn’t like it!

I don’t suppose he would, thought the Little A, and he noticed to his amazement that as soon as he thought this, the boy winced as if he had been hit, and knocked his fist into the head of his friend in a way not entirely playful.

What is eating you! cried the other youth. Are you thinking of joining him in hell!

Well why did you dig your nails into my ear ?

Are you drunk ? I did no such thing.

Then they all looked at one another, and Little A realised he would have to be careful what he thought, which is more than many people ever seem to realise.

Ah forget it! cried the one whom he had struck. But if ever I get my hands on old Skinny, he’ll wish he were in hell.

Poor sick character residue! thought Little A, and to his amazement, the youth suddenly vomited on the ground and curling up into a ball, groaned in pain.

By this time, the whole group began to realise that something especially weird-seeming was happening, and gathering around their stricken friend, they tried to protect him from whatever was causing these calamities as they thought them.

Little A put his hand on his wing and thought. If my negative thoughts do this, that is helpful, but they need a sense of direction. Therefore he decided to think how good it would be if they became willing to consider their Maker while they were young, and so he repeated to himself words Ecclesiastes 11-12, very softly in case they hurt them too much:

       “Rejoice, O young man, in your youth,

And let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth;

Walk in the ways of your heart,

And in the sight of your eyes;

But know that for all these

God will bring you into judgment.

       “Therefore remove sorrow from your heart,

And put away evil from your flesh,

For childhood and youth are vanity.

       “Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth,

Before the difficult days come,

And the years draw near when you say,

'I have no pleasure in them' :

      "While the sun and the light,

The moon and the stars,

Are not darkened,

And the clouds do not return after the rain;

      In the day when the keepers of the house tremble,

And the strong men bow down;

When the grinders cease because they are few,

And those that look through the windows grow dim;

       When the doors are shut in the streets,

And the sound of grinding is low;

When one rises up at the sound of a bird,

And all the daughters of music are brought low;

      Also they are afraid of height,

And of terrors in the way;

When the almond tree blossoms,

The grasshopper is a burden,

And desire fails.

"For man goes to his eternal home,

And the mourners go about the streets.

      “Remember your Creator before the silver cord is loosed,

Or the golden bowl is broken,

Or the pitcher shattered at the fountain,

Or the wheel broken at the well.

       Then the dust will return to the earth as it was,

             And the spirit will return to God who gave it.”

As he did this, a sudden silence came on the group, and one of them said, You know did you ever think about dying. Seeing Jack here having strange pains and vomiting and curling up in a little ball and looking so ghastly reminds me of it. Why do you think we are alive ?

Well it can’t just be to eat and drink and grow, for there is always a reason, said one. BEING what you are is not to the point; DOING what you are for is what any product sets about, unless it is fit for the pit.

Who says we are products ?

Did you make yourself ?

No, mum and dad made me.

Rubbish, they merely did the equivalent of turning the lock in the door. This does not invent the lock or the door or what is inside, for that matter.

Then who do you think made us ?

Oh come on, Bruce, don’t you realise that a combination of design greater than any man ever made, and thought that echoes the inwardness of things so that it can understand it, and will that is free to breach all this is a product within a product, man in the world, and that it is about time we realised this.

Who then made us ? answer my question.

God is the name usually used, isn’t it ? why ask me, can’t you see for yourself.

At this the Little Angel had an idea. He touched one of them to see what would happen, and nothing at all happened, any more than would if a shadow touched someone. That is strange! he thought, for they seem like shadows to me, when I look at them, but when I touch one of them, the action is as if a shadow hit him.

Ah, I see, he reasoned, our realms are so different that each seems like a shadow to the other. How then is it that my mind affects them just by my thinking thoughts about them ? It must be because I am an angel, and they are sensitised to this aspect of my being.

I wonder what will happen if I WILL something about them ?

He willed that they might listen to the Gospel. Nothing happened. Instead, he prayed for them, and then something did happen. They looked about them as if a wind had suddenly arisen and driven them, and decided it was time to go home, but as they went, Jack, who had recovered quite well, added this.

I am going to pray when I get home, for to use the thought of Shakespeare, there are more things in heaven and earth that are moved by prayer than this world dreams of. What is more, I am going to try to be more co-operative with old Skinny, since he has to answer for his actions too, to his Producer, and what is the point of lowering everyone else’s performance. It gets nowhere and is thick in spirit, like cream far gone, and hardening in a gluey, evil-smelling globule.

The others were amazed at this, so Little A decided to visit Jack in his sleep and see what way could arise, in which he could direct him to the celestial, and better yet, to the heavenly, and above that to the Lamb.

As he did this, he felt a surge of strength and a wind of cooling simultaneously, and remembered what he had read about the rather odd ways these mortals travelled about, using things called automobiles, which when serviced, often went a great deal better. I must have just been serviced! he chortled to himself, and with this refreshing reminder that he was not alone, he continued to work at his ministration to mortals, finding it almost intoxicating and fascinating, and yet dangerous and challenging. Ah well! he remarked to himself, I am only a Little Angel, and have much to learn, but I DO have a good Teacher.