The Harbinger (35 page)

“The bridegroom gives everything he has for the bride, even his life. The bride must do likewise. He calls her. If she says yes, everything he has becomes hers, and everything she has becomes his. Her burdens become his burdens, her sins become his sins. He becomes hers, and she becomes his. She leaves her old life behind for a new one, to go with her beloved. Wherever he goes, she goes with him, and wherever she dwells, he never leaves her. He loves her with all his being, as she loves him. The one lives for the other, and the other for the one. The two become as one.”

“So the bridegroom is…”

“God.”

“And the bride is…”

“The one who receives him.”

“Sounds beautiful,” I said.

“It
is
beautiful…the most beautiful thing you could possibly find or ever know or ever have in your days on earth.”

“It’s a love story.”

“After all is said and done, that’s what it was always meant to be…a love story.”

“A marriage.”

“Yes, an eternal marriage for which we were all born, and of which no one was to be left out, that no one would enter eternity alone.”

“And it begins…”

“It begins with the receiving…with the opening of one’s heart…with the turning away from darkness and to the light…with the giving of oneself…the committing of one’s life—a vow of love…a prayer…decision…a total and unconditional
yes
.”

“And it takes place…”

“Anywhere, any place, alone or with others, wherever you are. It takes place anywhere, for it takes place in the heart.”

“And at any time?”

“No, Nouriel,” he said. “It doesn’t take place at any time. It only takes place at
one
time.”

“What
one
time?”

“
Now
…” said the prophet. “Now is the only time in which it can happen. As it is written, ‘
Now is the time of salvation
,’ never tomorrow, only now.”

“But if we were talking tomorrow, it could still happen then.”

“Yes, but only when then has become now, and tomorrow is today. But when it does, you may not be there.”

“And why wouldn’t I be?”

“How far away from eternity do you think you are, Nouriel?”

“How could I possibly know that?”

“But you can know that,” he replied.

“Then what’s the answer?” I asked. “How far am I away from eternity?”

“One heartbeat,” he replied, “one heartbeat. That’s it. That’s all. You’re only one heartbeat away from eternity. Everything you have—your life, your breath, this moment, it’s all borrowed, it’s all a gift. And at any moment it all ends with a heartbeat…just one heartbeat, and there’s no more time. One heartbeat and the chance to be saved is gone. One heartbeat and there’s no more choosing—it’s all sealed for eternal life or eternal death.”

“But if I didn’t choose…”

“Then you already have. If you don’t choose to be saved, then you’ve chosen not to be saved. Your life and your eternity…it all rests on one heartbeat.
And what will you do on the Day of Judgment
? Remember the question, Nouriel…because in the end it’s the only question. Remember the question…because no one knows when that day will come. The only thing you can be sure of is that it
will
come, and the only time you can be sure of is now. Now is all you have. And now is the time of salvation.”

“It’s too big a decision to make just like that.”

“It’s too big a decision
not
to,” he said.

“I would have to see to believe.”

“No, Nouriel, you have to
believe
in order to see and to find what you’re searching for.”

“And what is it that I’m searching for?”

“The meaning, the purpose of your life, the reason you were born. It’s the only way you can ever find it…. Only in Him who gave you life, can you find its meaning.”

“I need time.”

“And you have it, Nouriel…up until the last heartbeat.”

He allowed a few moments of silence to let his words sink in as I stared into the distant waters.

“The seal,” he said. “May I have it back?”

So I returned it to him.

“And with this,” said the prophet, “it’s finished. The time of the revealing of mysteries is complete.”

“So then you don’t have anything more to give me?” I asked.

He paused and looked at me with the look of a shopkeeper when asked for an item he no longer has in stock. But then his expression changed. “Come to think of it,” he said, “I do.”

“There’s another seal?”

“Yes, come to think of it.” He reached into his coat pocket, took it out, and handed it to me.

“What was it?” she asked.

“It was the first one, the very first seal.”

“Wait, I thought he just gave you the first seal, the seal of the First Harbinger, and you gave it back to him.”

“No. There was another. There was another before that seal. The seal I gave
him
at the beginning.”

“The one that came in the mail?” she asked.

“Yes, the one that started everything. I hadn’t seen it since the day I gave it away, years before, when it all began.”

“It’s only right that it be returned to its owner,” he said. “It’s
your
seal, your security deposit. You see? I gave you my word you’d get it back.”

“You told me I’d get it back when we were finished with the Harbingers.”

“So then we are.”

“And there’s nothing more?”

“More?”

“No more mysteries, no more revelations?”

“You have all you need now.”

“So then…”

“So then,” he said, “this is it.”

“So…”

“So it’s time for us to part.”

“That’s it?”

“Good-bye, Nouriel.”

But this time he didn’t leave. He remained by the waters as if waiting for me to go first. So I began walking away, finding it hard to accept the finality of it all. It was about ten seconds into my departure that I heard his voice.

“Oh,” he said, “there
is
something.”

I froze in place, and without turning back, but looking straight ahead, I responded. “What?” I asked.

“You never answered my question.”

“
I
never answered
your
question? And what question was that?”

“
Why were you given the seal?
I asked you that at the beginning, but you never gave me an answer.”

“And why would you need to know the answer to that?”

“I don’t.”

“Then why do you ask the question?”

“Because
you
do.”

“
I
do?”

“Yes. You’re the one who needs to know the answer to the question.”

“Then why am I not asking it?”

“That’s a good question.”

“A good question why I’m not asking the question?”

“Yes,” he said. “It is a mystery.”

“A mystery to
you
?”

“Yes.”

“That’s a switch.”

“Why were you given the seal?”

“Is that another mystery?” I asked. “Is this the last mystery?”

“Answer the question, Nouriel…and you’ll know.”

Chapter 22

The Last Seal

S
O WHAT HAPPENED?
” she asked.

“Nothing at first, nothing revealing why I was given the seal. There was another matter, more pressing, that I had to deal with.”

“More pressing?”

“The matter of eternity. It haunted my thoughts. It was the one thing on which everything else stood or fell. If I didn’t get that part right, the rest wouldn’t matter, my life, everything. Everything would come to an end, and then…eternity. Everything would end with eternity—the one thing that wouldn’t end, the only thing that would be left when everything else was gone…and so the only thing that would matter. I had to get that part right. I had to get my life right with God.”

“And did you?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

“By following his words.”

“And what happened?”

“Everything began to change, not so much around me, not my circumstances, but within. It was a release, a completion, and, for the first time in my life, I had a real peace.”

“And what happened after that?”

“After that, I tried to make sense of everything that happened up to that point—my encounters with the prophet, everything that was shown to me, all the revelations of the mysteries. I had no idea what I was supposed to do with it. And why me? I tried to go on with my life as normal, as I had before the prophet, before the Harbingers, before receiving that envelope. I tried…but it was impossible. I was a writer of articles, the purpose of which being to entertain my readers or, at best, to provoke them. But in light of the revelations, everything I was doing now seemed irredeemably shallow and trivial, of no consequence. And then there was the burden.”

“The burden?”

“Of what I knew.”

“You were burdened about the future?”

“Not for myself,” he said. “I wasn’t afraid for myself, but for others. The veil had been removed so I could see, so I could be warned. But what about everyone else? They had no idea. They had no clue of what was happening or where it was all heading.”

“Sounds like what the prophets must have gone through,” she said.

“I couldn’t escape it. And yet there was nothing I could do about it…a burden with no direction. I took out the seal.”

“The last seal.”

“And the first…to go over it in detail.”

“You never did that before?” she asked.

“Not seriously…not as seriously as I had with the others. When I first received it, I had no assurance that there was any meaning to it. And when he returned it, at the end, there didn’t seem to be any reason to. The mysteries were finished except for why I was the one given them in the first place. And it wasn’t like the other seals. It didn’t have an image, just ancient-looking inscriptions. Its purpose, I assumed, was to begin the search, and then to end it. I didn’t think there was much left to discover now that it was all over.”

“And was there?”

“The writing on the seal was in a language I had never seen before. But I remembered the words of the prophet that day we first met on the bench, when he took the seal to examine it. He said it was Hebrew, but a different form of Hebrew—Paleo-Hebrew, an older version.”

“And did you know anybody who could read Paleo-Hebrew?”