Jack laughed. “Go for it. I’m going for coffee.”

“Me too,” Erica said. She touched Jack’s arm and pointed toward the view. “It’s amazing. Those mountains.”

“I’ve been told that’s the new earth. Things have been restored to the way God intended.”

“Yes, I know. I asked my angel about it all.”

Jack looked at the thousands of tables surrounded by thousands of people. “I imagine there are many questions, like where we’re going to live. What we’re going to wear? What we’re going to drive?”

Erica’s parents and his own parents were getting on like a house on fire. He looked down at his own body and felt healthy, a goodness, a well-being. He looked around. Everyone had healthy bodies, even his parents. Healthy bodies, no different to his. He looked at their faces, their lovely faces, and it dawned on him. It was their eyes. He saw their age and wisdom in their eyes. The eyes, the entrance to their soul.

“We’re still in the clothes we left in,” Erica said. “We didn’t pack suitcases. I imagine we will change to heavenly clothing at some point.”

Jack looked down at his legs, draped in casual pants. What would they wear? Robes? White robes. Could he wear them? He needed to get past his worldly mindset, especially his Western mindset. Trends and traditions. An image of Arab men presented itself. Whatever the clothing of heaven was, it didn’t really matter.

“I would say our dream homes have been replicated,” Erica said. “Something to do with the desires of our hearts. God knows them. Besides, He is perfect in all His ways. As for cars and things, well, who knows? But it’s exciting.”

So many questions. What about the broken homes? Broken families? In time, their questions would all be answered.

“I can’t wait to see our new home—although that’s probably our existing home. Be like coming home from a trip or something.” Joanne turned to her husband. “And imagine the questions he’s been asking.”

They all smiled. Erica’s father had the same fascination with space as Frank. His own father also dabbled with heavenly things. Jack had memories of his dad pointing things out in the night sky.

“Yes.” Adam had the largest grin. “It’s not physically a new earth. God has just added a new structure to the exiting earth. A new metropolis, a large metropolis, a metropolis that accommodates millions upon millions of people with room to spare.”

“What’s a metropolis, Pop?’ Johnny asked.

“Like a new country, Johnny,” Adam said. “But with dimensions we can’t comprehend. In fact, I would say it’s such a radical change to our physical world that it may alter our concept of physical laws. But we need to remember one thing: all that matters is knowing that every atom in the universe is in the hands of God.”

Johnny smiled, his eyes wide and eyebrows raised. He gave a slow nod of his head.

Jack wasn’t sure what his own views of space and physical laws were but was still excited. How easy it was to forget how small we really were and who was really in charge. Jack was now in his presence. In his kingdom. His eyes watered, the entrance of Jesus fresh in his mind.

“It reminds me of an old song.” Jonanne’s eyes sparkled. “Something along the lines of having the whole wide world in his hands.”

“I don’t think these young ones would have heard that song, love.”

“I have,” Johnny piped in. “Mum used to sing it to me when I was a little bitty baby. I had a poster with the words in my room.”

They all laughed.

David returned with their drinks. He watched as Johnny sipped his Coke and gave him a wink as Johnny’s eyes lit up. The server nodded and moved on to another table.

Adam continued. “The world outside still exists although I have no idea of its state. I believe we’re now located either just above or on land covering a large portion of the Middle East. I would say centrally located above Jerusalem, exactly where the Lord said he would return.”

“Mount of Olives” Joanne said.

“I wonder what it looks like from the outside?” Erica asked.

“I asked the same question, love,” Adam said. “It’s over two thousand kilometres square, so you’d need to be thousands of kilometres away before you could even see the top, and that would need to be on a clear day.” He looked at Johnny. “And it goes even higher than the international space station.”

“Will the space station run into us as it orbits?” Johnny asked.

“Good question, Johnny. That’s what I mean when I say our concept of space and physical laws might be in for a bit of a shock—but an exciting one. The space station travels approximately 28,000 kilometres an hour—imagine that smashing into our new city. But we are also moving, so that probably couldn’t happen. And then gravity comes into play also.”

Jack couldn’t help but admire Adam’s Hollywood effects to his words. His own parents were totally engrossed by the conversation.

“Anyway, what would the use of the space station be now?” Johnny said.

Adam looked at Erica. “You have one smart son there, love.” He returned his gaze to Johnny. “Yep, may be completely redundant now. Everything we need to know about the universe is at our feet.” He waved his arms to encompass their new home. “But maybe we will be going on space missions, maybe time travellers.”

Johnny gave a vigorous nod. “Is Armageddon happening?”

Another good question.

“God may still have to deal with the evil that has been left behind.” Jack was glad that evil was no longer his responsibility. “Armageddon may be part of that but let’s focus on our new abode.”

Jack thought about the size of his new city, over two thousand kilometres wide. He remembered Frank saying the wall surrounding the city was something like sixty-six metres thick. At the time, he’d thought that was strong. Now he wondered if that thickness would help with absorbing and distributing solar radiation. He would ponder that later. Right now, he was more concerned with protection. Maybe Armageddon was happening now. Maybe it had happened. The thick wall buffered any sounds.

Johnny waved. He must have seen someone he knew. He returned his focus to his Pop. “Hey Pop, you mentioned seeing the city on a clear day. Does that mean we’ll still have clouds?”

“You’ve got to stop throwing these questions at me.” Adam touched his head. “My poor brain.” The words came with a wink.

“You know what I think?” Johnny didn’t wait for a response. “I think the cube will flatten out like a carpet and cover the Earth.”

Pop was nodding his head. “Wow. I can visualise that. The sides coming down. A new covering. You know, that would cover the whole of Australia. Could also cover the Middle East. Maybe that’s God’s plan.”

“Well, you can imagine how people felt when they were told the Earth was a round ball, spinning through space. I even struggle now when I think about it. So a cube …” Jack wanted to go back to school.

“If we flatten it out like Johnny says, then clouds would be there as normal. While we’re in cube state? I’m not sure. I’m not sure about the sun, moon and many other things, but in time …”

Jack looked to the mountains. It felt like home. He hadn’t noticed it when he walked on the ball called Earth and he knew he wouldn’t notice walking on a cube called the New Earth. He was impressed with Johnny’s idea of the cube eventually flattening out. He could visualise that. A large and barren land, a field of broken things, covered with beauty he couldn’t imagine. Would he even be aware if it happened?

The mountains were covered in trees, and there was no pollution. Trees contributed to cloud cover. He had no idea where that thought came from. More words came to mind. The desert will blossom, streams will be flowing. The eyes of the blind shall be opened. The deaf shall hear. Lame men leaping. The mute singing.

Above all, he knew that God had everything under control. With that complete trust, all other thoughts and feelings swept away.

42 - River of life

A flowing river of life. Jack thought of the old Earth, the old life, the things he loved. They were all here with him.

He angled his head, taking in what was before him, a near impossible task. Not to mention the millions of people. Maybe billions. Now Jack fully understood the greatness of his God, he was filled with awe.

The large screen focused on the river flowing from the throne of God. Beautiful lands surrounded the river, and a magnificent tree was the centre of focus. Jack scanned the people surrounding him. Someone in the distance triggered an echo of a memory, a fragmented memory, a memory with no context. He sensed it was a memory he didn’t need. The person turned towards Jack and gave him a smile. A genuine smile.

“Jack, we’ve all been hurt by someone or something, and we’ve all done the same to others.” His angel appeared next to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. Jack felt an energy. “You’ll encounter many people you’ve hurt, but you won’t experience those memories as negative emotions—those connections are gone. Here, forgiveness rules. The fruit of the Spirit rules. The fruit has matured here. All people have the characteristics of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The way it was always meant to be.”

In his heart, Jack knew it all stemmed from love—a word that brought so much complexity and confusion to the old world. Many searched for love but ignored what God had told them: God is love. He was surprised by how easy his mind had transitioned into the new world. The old was gone and would soon be remembered no more.