Access Denied

Trigger warnings- Views on Religon and politics may not align with all readers.

“Knock, Knock. You got a minute?”

“Sure, Peter, come on in. What Can I do for you?”

“I’m sorry to interrupt you in your office like this, but there is a situation at the gate. Another one arrived today. She disagrees with my decision, insists that she has a reservation, and refuses to get on the elevator to go down. She is demanding to speak to you.”

With a deep sigh, I stand from behind my desk. “Let me guess, and other evangelical?”

“Yes, according to her file. She has been a member of the Lakeview Mega Church in Georgia for the past thirty years.”

“Thank you, Peter. I will handle it. Please go back to the gate and carrying on with your duties. Many people, including Mrs. Rebecca Harper, disagree with the choices we’ve made over the last ten years. I am sure in the next four, we will make the same and it will get worse before it gets better.”

“Thank you, sir. Again, I am sorry that you have to deal with this personally. In over two thousand years, I have never had my decisions questioned as often as they have been in the last ten. The morning star really picked well when he chose his latest minion.”

“That he did, and his newest is worse. I’m afraid the Earth is in for a lot of suffering and you will be very busy soon. Please head on back.”

As I make my way to the front gates, I immediately see the problem. An older woman in her mid to late sixties is still trying to argue her way beyond the gates. I can hear a bit of her argument as I approach. “A church goer my entire life. I gave every Sunday, cooked meals for my ladies’ group, taught Sunday school. How am I not on the list? This is a mistake. It’s outrageous!”

“Hadraniel, go on back to the gate. I’ve got it from here.” I say with a smile, putting a hand out to the woman to calm her. Hadraniel bows respectfully to me and moves back to his side of the gate, blocking it from those waiting Peter’s judgments.

“Jesus, merciful savior, thank you for coming to hear my plea.” The woman, Rebecca, drops to her knees in front of me. You know I am a god fearing woman. “You live in my heart and can see my soul. Please let me pass through the gates.”

“Rise, sister, come and walk with me.” I reach down my hand to help her stand and give her my most patient and reassuring smile. “Let us go to my office so that we may talk. There is no need to cause a scene and disrupt the work of Peter and the other angels.”

“Thank you, Sweet, Jesus. I knew you would hear me out.” Gripping my arm, she clings to me all the way back to my office, telling me about all of her good works and how she just knows there has been some kind of mistake.

“Please have a seat, Mrs. Harper. When there is a situation at the gate, like yours. When the soul does not agree with Peter’s decision, we have a look at the sum total of the impact their life has had. Think of it like an episode of “This is Your Life” I have footage of all of your charitable and not so charitable deeds and actions from the time you could make your own decisions, right until your death. We will watch the footage together and see if Peter was wrong in his decision.”

“I am sure he was. I am a good person.” She takes the seat I offer her and relaxes. Sure, in her conviction that she will enter the kingdom at any minute.

“First, your childhood.”

Little Mary mac, ma,c mac, all dressed in black, black, black. With Silver buttons, buttons, buttons, all down her back, back, back. A group of girls are jumping rope in a schoolyard. Boys are chasing each other with a ball and look to be playing tag. “That’s me in the middle. I used to love jump rope.” Rebecca leans forward in the chair as we watch the as the scene progresses.

The girls go back to their jump rope, but the boys’ game has become less friendly. Suddenly we hear one boy cry out and see him laying on the ground with a hand to his face. The other boys are surrounding him and are clearly yelling at him, but we can’t hear what they are saying.

Rebecca drops her rope and runs to the boys. “Hey, leave him alone! Get away from him!” Pushing her way past the other boys, she kneels down next to the boy on the ground. “Why are you yelling at him? Why don’t you help him up?”

“Why should we? One boy sneers down at her. He is just a dirty little Pollock. Come on, boys, let’s take the ball and go play over there.” With a last kick of dirt on Rebecca and the crying boy, they run off to another part of the playground.

“Don’t you listen to those other boys. I am sure they just don’t like that you were faster than them. Here”. We watch as Rebecca rips a part of her dress off and hands it to the boy so that he can wipe his face. “That day, I got into trouble for having a torn dress. I tried to only rip off part of the underlining of the dress, but my mother still saw the missing fabric. I told her I used it to help someone at school, but she was still upset about the missing piece. She replaced it with another piece. But it never matched.”

“I was very proud of you that day. The boy’s name was Saul. He had just moved here from Poland a couple of years before and was having a hard time making friends. It pleased me greatly to see that you were kind to him that day.” Rebecca and I share a warm smile.

“In church, we learned in Leviticus 19, that we were all once strangers in the land of Egypt and that we should love them as ourselves. I think that week during Sunday school, our lesson was about treating those less fortunate than ourselves with compassion and helping our fellow man.”

“Well, on that day you did very well with following the lesson learned. Let’s move on. This is from college.”

“So, for our sorority give back to the community event, we are going to be donating our time to the local homeless shelter and food pantry. Over the winter months, they offer a warming shelter and soup kitchen. Please sign up for at least three shifts to serve dinner or work the warming center.” I remember those nights. Anytime there was a shift not covered, I stepped in to help. I think some weeks I spent more nights eating with the homeless in the soup kitchen than I did with my family or my sorority sisters. Their families, especially those with children, were always so grateful for the warm food or a warm place to sleep.” Rebecca wipes her eyes as she thinks back on those families that struggled through the harsh winters.

“You were very compassionate with those families. The children were always happy to see you on nights you worked the kitchen.”

“Well, my sisters weren’t all as kind to the homeless as I was.” Sometimes, I worked extra shifts to ensure respectful treatment for the people we served.

“I could not have been more proud. Of you during that time.”

“I remembered my bible studies. In Matthew 25, the Bible says: “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me.”” Rebecca smiles up at me, very proud of her biblical knowledge.

Let’s move on to your family life. Here is a scene from an incident that happened in the church where someone was taking advantage of the older members trying to get them to partake in a scheme to defraud them of their retirement money.

“Now Henry, I know you think this is a win-win situation and that investing in real estate will set you up for life, providing your children with a better inheritance when you pass. However, you must examine the company’s past performance and history. Multiple parties have sued this man for fraud, and he has declared bankruptcy in every business he has owned. You will risk not only your money, but everyone else’s who you have convinced to believe this man. He is just trying to take your money and you will get nothing out of it. Please, just do your research. I have no reason to lie to you about this. We as a church family just want what is best for you and your family.”

That day, you and the rest of the church leaders rescued Henry’s family from financial ruin. He did a little more research and could turn that man in for fraud. I was proud to call you mine. You stood up to those who would have used my children to line their pockets with gold. You cared for our church family that day.

“I read my bible. You surely despise those who turn a house of prayer into a den of thieves. I remember the story of the money changers in Matthew 21.”

“It is clear, Rebecca, that you had a good foundation with the church. My question is, when did you stop believing in it?” Crossing my arms, I lose my patient smile and affable demeanor.

She looks at me, taken aback by my change in attitude.

“I don’t understand what you mean. I have always followed the teachings in the bible.” She stammers.

Let’s review some of your recent activities to see how well you’re applying those teachings. I love the invention of social media. People often forget that just because they are behind a keyboard, doesn’t mean they are not visible to others. That the words they type are there forever. Here is one of your posts that caught my attention.

“Dirty Immigrants. Need to go back to where they came from. The president is right. They bring in nothing but disease. Millions of illegals, taking our jobs, breaking the laws, driving up our prices. They do not deserve to be here. Build the Wall and send them back!”

“Tha…that’s not. That was said out of anger for.. But he’s the president. Surely God had a plan in getting him elected.” Rebecca’s face is red as she tries to justify the words she typed.

“Yes. God has many plans. Let us look at another of your posts. This one is a video of you.”

On the projector we see Rebecca in the bathroom of a department store. In the bathroom, she has cornered a man and is yelling at him. “Why are you in here? This is a ladies’ room, what gives you the right to enter this restroom. Who do you think you are? Are you one of those Trans people? Who thinks they can go into any restroom they please because they are feeling feminine today?” The camera then turns to Rebecca’s face. “This is what is wrong with America. There is no accountability and no privacy in our restrooms any more.” It is at this point that a small child, a girl of about four years old, exits a stall. “Daddy, why is that girl yelling at you?” “Don’t look at the mean lady, honey. Just hurry and wash your hands before anyone else comes in.” The little girl goes to the smaller sink and does just that. The man helps her and exits the restroom. Rebecca keeps fuming into her phone about the audacity of people these days. “

“Just so you are aware. The man was in the restroom because he was a single father of that little girl. It was safer for him to bring her into the empty women’s restroom than it was to take her into the men’s restroom. He called in to the restroom before he entered to ensure that it was empty before he went in, and he told the sales associates outside that he was doing so. When you went to use the restroom, they tried to tell you he was in there with his daughter, but you dismissed them, saying you urgently needed to use the restroom and they could clean it afterward.”

“I did not know. It makes sense that he would not want to take a four-year-old child into a men’s restroom.” Rebecca has lost some of her self righteous posture at this point and is sitting a little lower in her chair. She does not meet my eyes this time when I say,

“Because you didn’t ask, you were unaware. You just jumped to conclusions and judged. You did not listen to those who would have told you. What does the bible say about judging others?”

The last evidence I have is another post, this one only from a few weeks ago.

“Anyone who is complaining about the President can suck it up. He is doing exactly what I hired him to do. He is getting rid of the immigrants, cutting off funds for the greedy, needy, stopping the Palestinians from gaining more ground, and cutting funds from useless government programs.”

“Again, Rebecca. What changed? When did your belief that feeding the poor and caring for strangers was right cease to exist? When did you prioritize supporting someone convicted of money crimes and fraud over following my word? I was very proud of you as a child, teen, and a young adult. But you have become a stranger to me. Therefore, Peter was correct in denying you access beyond the gates. Therefore, his decision stands.”

Rebecca slumps down in her chair and sobs. She just keeps staring at the floor, and then at the words on the screen. Back and forth like she is unsure of where she went wrong.

“But, the President, you chose him to lead our nation. How could I have been so wrong about him?”

“Was he chosen by me? You forget that God and I are not the only forces at work on the Earth. That sometimes Satan and his followers are at work as well. I warned you many times about the harm this president would do. Messages came from many people. From your friends and family, whom we thought you held in high regard, came these warnings. We sent them from your favorite actors and actresses, who we thought you might listen to. We sent them from other church or world leaders. None of it made a difference. Because when the Devil chooses his generals, he does not choose them for their brains, or their looks. He chooses them for their silver tongues. You fell for it, and now you must endure the consequences of your actions.”

“Is there nothing I can do to make up for this?” Rebecca sobs at my knees.

“Yes, But I am not sure you have the strength to endure it.”

I’m prepared to do anything you ask. This I can endure I will succeed. I have learned from my mistakes. Please, Jesus. Have mercy.

Taking a deep breath, I look down at Rebecca. “I do not wish to see my children suffer. But this world is full of it, in part because of your actions. So, I am sending you back to Eath. I’m sending you back not as yourself, but as someone harmed by you and others like you. You will reap what you have sown. I am sending you back into the body of a homeless immigrant living in Georgia. He is a father of a young teenage son who is homosexual. They are living in a homeless shelter after his wife kicked the son out for being gay. The father chose not to abandon his son and left with him. He has since lost his job because he did not have reliable transportation and a place to shower and change. You will need to find a better place to live and a job soon as Immigration Enforcement will be raiding the shelter in the next few days.. The son is legal as his mother is a citizen and he was born here, but his mother has disowned him. Over the next seven years, you need to find a way for you and your son to not only survive but thrive in this new reality you live in. If you do that, the kingdom will welcome you. Don’t let me down again, Rebecca. I will see you in seven years.”

With that, I leave the office and summon Azarel to take her soul back to Earth. I hope she learns from her mistakes and survives her next seven years. I hope we all do.