How Can This Be?

Prompt: Write a story that includes the line(s) “No one will believe you.”

How Can This Be?

I awoke to rocks and debris tumbling around me. The skies were pitch black. Lightening coursed its way through the sky. The earth was shaking. I felt like I was on my boat adrift in the sea tossed by unrelenting waves. I had been laying just outside the entrance to a small cave. Dirt and small stones covered more than half my body. Using a vine that clung to the surface of the surrounding hill, I pulled myself out of that shroud of earth. The effort nearly exhausted me causing my head and body to throb all at once. I had no idea why I felt so miserable. I had no idea where I was or what had happened to me.

The shaking lasted briefly. Sunlight poked its way through dark, ominous clouds on the horizon. I thought whatever had happened was thankfully coming to an end. Even my eyes stung as I surveyed my location. The city seemed to be a mile or two away. Fires were burning inside and outside the city. There were no visible landmarks near me. Small shrubs and lots of large rocks impeded my way out of this lifeless garden of rock.

“I am so thirsty,” I said aloud hoping someone, anyone would give me a drink.

Unfortunately, no one uttered a response. There were no voices, no words. The air was dead like the ground I was leaving. As I shuffled my way, I noticed a large puddle of water. Every joint inside me screamed with excruciating pain as I bent down to draw from the brackish water. Despite the muck in the water, the puddle refreshed me enough to continue my way out of the avalanche of rock that had tumbled down from the surrounding hills.

At last, I came across a road that led into the city. Still there were no signs of human life. A few animals darted out from the debris. Some succulent, bitter greens dotted the roadside. With great effort, I collected and ate some as I painstakingly made my way toward the city.

Thoughts raced through my mind. Had the end of times come upon us? I remember reading from one of the prophets of old concerning his vision of what would happen in the end times. “Behold, the days are coming, (That) I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; A King shall reign and prosper and execute judgement and righteousness in the earth.” (1) Had wrath been poured out upon the city? Upon the world? In my shaken belief I asked myself was I one of the accursed to suffer and perish for my transgressions? But how could that be? I am very much alive. I know this because I feel my intense pain.

I persevered in my quest to seek help and answers to so many of my questions. Before passing through the portal gates of the city, I saw a few other people hobbling toward the city. They were coming from the same direction I had been, but much further down the road.

I paused. I debated with myself if I should wait for them or enter the city where some fires continued to burn. I chose to wait. I figured it must have been an hour before the small group met me at my location. Like me, they looked dazed, tired, and confused. Similarly, their clothes were tattered and worn. One man was missing an arm. A woman had a disfigured face. A third man had severe lesions on his skin. A fourth man seemed much like me. The closer they came to me I smelled a putrid, decaying odor. I had noticed the odor on myself as well. I recognized it as the smell of death.

As the sun touched the horizon, I saw from a far distance a scattering of people from the place where executions were done. More lightening streaked across the sky.

I asked “Do you know what happened here to the town? To all of us?”

The woman said, “The last thing I remember I was at my house a few days ago with my family. We were discussing the stories told by the Teacher. I was serving dinner and the earth shook. My clothes caught fire. I was in so much pain. I only remember falling asleep."

The man with the severe lesions said, “I am an outcast. I am dying of leprosy. I had heard a rumor that a man could heal me. Others would say he could cure anything. I even saw for myself of what he could do. But before I could see him in the city, I heard the authorities had arrested him as a charlatan and as an insurrectionist against the state. Then my illness caused me to fall asleep a week ago.”

The man with the missing arm said, “I am a farmer. I was helping several families plow their fields several weeks ago. The oxen were spooked by a snake. They dragged me through the fields and the plowshare cut off my arm. I too heard about the Teacher and his miraculous healing powers and for our future hope. But there was so much blood. The last thing I remember is that I had lost a lot of blood. Then, I fell asleep.”

The fourth said nothing, seeming to ponder what was said by everyone.

“What about you?” asked the woman.

I said, “I just don’t remember. I woke up in a pile of stones and dirt outside of a cave south of the city. Before all this had happened, I do remember I had been feeling ill. I was out fishing and reading the manuscripts of the prophets on my boat when I fell asleep. I am not sure how much time elapsed. It seemed like weeks from today.”

The group looked at each other and without a word they nodded in agreement.

The fourth man said, “You must have been the fisherman whose boat capsized on the sea a few weeks ago. You were buried in a tomb south of the city. I remember hearing about this from the local fishermen. You were very wise in the old texts.”

Wide-eyed I declared,” Then the prophet’s words are coming true. The end times are upon us: Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O My people, and brought you up from your graves. I will put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it and performed it,” says the Lord.” (2)

The other four were astonished and collectively said “How can this be? No one will believe you! You are a dead man from the earth.”

“And so are you! You are dead too, but now you are alive! You are alive because the Teacher, Jesus Christ, has made you alive! He predicted that one day He would die at the hands of His enemies. And so, it is true! Look over at Calvary’s hill and see His cross.

The five of them entered the city gates proclaiming the majesty of the crucified Lord Jesus Christ.

“Behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.” (3)

How could this be, you ask? “So, you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and live to God through Jesus Christ. (4)

You say, “No one will believe you.” Look to evidence as it is proclaimed in the actual words of the Gospel and to the sightings of the risen Christ.

“I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said He was buried, and He was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve. After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he was seen by James and later by all the apostles.” (5)

Do you believe now? Even if Christ would return today would you believe?

-END- (or a new beginning?)

1. Jeremiah 23:5, NKJV

2. Ezekial 37: 13-14, NKJV

3. Matthew 27: 51-53, NKJV

4. Romans 6:11, NLT

5. 1 Corinthian’s 15:3b-7

NKJV-New King James Version

NLT=New Living Translation

Author: Pete Gautchier

Acknowledgement: Reedsyprompts.com