“Great as the heavens and small as a grain of sand so is time in the hand of men.” “Oh! I am wise,” he thought to himself as he answered to the Great Worlds call. “Wait, what was the question again?” He muttered to himself, “I think I missed something.” “Great answer!” Exclaimed the Great worlds, “You shall go to the beginning.” By this time all sound was drowned by the great doors,” Kooong!” He tried to shout, “what did you say about the beginning?” but no one responded.

Suddenly, like a great apocalypse, the ground behind begun to sink. Piece by piece, block by block. “What is this?” he thought, “someone needs to give me an answer.” But no answer was coming forth. As if being sucked in by a vacuum, a great force pulled him toward the entrance. “I am sure left for dead,” he thought. With a great force, he bounced off an invisible wall in the doorway and was thrown to the edge of the collapsing ground.

With each bounce off the invisible wall in the doorway came a gushing of pain from the crown of his head to the souls of his feet. It was the most unbearable situation he had ever seen. “How did I get here? How did I even get the idea that I could defy the great sages of old?” he asked himself. But scarier than the pain, was the sight of the fire that seemed to consume every inch of ground that was collapsing. “If I don’t get my act together,” he thought to himself, “I am as good as dead.”

Suddenly, as he was being pulled toward the open door and he saw the words written in almost invisible ink, “תּוֹדָה” and a voice followed saying, “He that receives not, shall not be received.” “Seriously!” he exclaimed. By this time, he was bouncing off the invisible wall the tenth time. “Damn, why did I not pay attention during those ancient language lectures?” By this time, he was surely running out of ground to bounce back to. A great lake of lava was beginning to appear, “falling there is not an option. Come on think!”

“Wait,” as if he had received an epiphany, “that is Hebrew. You read right to left not left to right.” By this time, he had bounced over a hundred times and had figured a way to calm his mind during his newly found ordeal. Then he shouted, “thank you!” as if he had not been heard he shouted again, “Thank you! Thank you! Thank yoouuuu!” This the vacuum pulled him in thrice hard and yet there was scarcely any more bouncing ground.

Suddenly, the word changed to, “בּוֹא” and a voice said, ”welcome to the Great Worlds.” “What there is a second word?” Nobody said anything about a second word let alone the first word. A great light peered into his being, everything he had ever seen, known, heard or even believed was revealed in an instant. “What is this? Who is this? When is this?” he asked as he lost all consciousness.

‘This is the story of everyone who wills to enter the Kingdom. It is free for all but not open to all. For some what stops them is a thankful heart or willingness to answer the hard questions of life or even finding the road to the entrance. It is surely a “narrow road” and “very few find it,” said the very first man to walk the whole journey. The journey is not hard, only that it has several stops and checkpoints. You need to pass each of these checkpoints. The first two levels, you will be able to see your neighbors and your friends. But as you go higher, they will become personal and you will have to enter each door alone.

There are many that do not want you to go ahead and will try to make you stray from the path. But remember, however much the dimensions change, the road is still straight. Don’t fall for the illusions on any of the levels or you will be stuck there. I once knew a man who got stuck here on the first level for over eighty years. He said that he was waiting for some sort of the messiah. One day he saw a baby and he declared that this was the person he was waiting for. Shortly after that he left. Never to be seen again. As for the baby…’ on and on went the curator.

“First wait. How long have I been out?” interrupted John. “My head is bursting.”

“What, you have been asleep this whole time?” asked the curator. ”it is okay. Let me say it again. Wait, what is the last thing you remember?”

“I passed some sort of exam, then entered through some invisible wall and saw a great piercing light… wait, you are the man I saw at the gate.”

“Welcome to ‘The Kingdom’,” Said the curator.

“What do you mean by ‘The Kingdom’? Am I dead?” asked John.

“Not yet” answered the curator, “but in a few minutes you will.”

“What do you mean by ‘in a few minutes you will’?” asked John.

‘Allow me to finish the story,’ said the curator. ‘Look behind you.’ On turning around he saw a multitude, of all races and ages. ‘Now that we have our brother’s attention, let me continue with the story. The baby became a great man who shook governments, peoples and even curators. Not long after he was killed. But on the day of his judgement and execution, all rules principals that used to govern the road changed. For example, you previously had to get an animal basing on your weight and you put it on the first altar but now you have to step on it yourself and you experience death then are resurrected. That is why I said, “in a few minutes you will.” Please get into a one queue. You will step onto this altar, die and then get resurrected.’

The whole crowd begun to murmur almost unanimously, ‘How are we sure that we will be resurrected?’

‘This is a chance you are going to have to take,’ said the curator. ’Something about you has to die today. All your life you had an illusion of control, but someone was controlling you without your permission. Right now, you can change everything about you. The question is will you take it, or will you throw it away?’

‘Yes, I am willing to die,’ said John.

‘Taking the first step, ah!’

A cold chill went through the spine uncontrollably. Time stopped, sound stopped, and sight stopped. Boom! Boom! Boom! Went the sound of the heart, as if it wanted to jump out before anyone could step onto the altar. Fear and tribulation like no man has ever seen.

‘Why would anyone go through this willingly?’ John thought.

The horrors of death became more real than the perils of life. Breath fled as he gasped for air.

‘The Curator said that only a few things would have to be taken away or did he say everything?’ he muttered while crouching for the next step.

The Curator just kept watching as though he had walked that way and only came back as a guide.

‘Who is next?’ he muttered, not even a bit concerned about John’s state, ‘remember it is a matter of faith and not strength. The more you fight, is the more you lose and will have to go through the whole ordeal over and over again.’

‘Come on man!’ someone in the crowd muttered almost angrily, ‘look, that guy is suffering!’

But the Curator, almost unmoved by the murmurings, continued, ‘If none of you volunteers to go next, I may have to make the choice for you.’

‘I will go next.’ A voice sounded, if only to break the silence. ‘I will go next.’

‘Isn’t that Martin?’ someone asked.

Then another, ‘I know that guy…’

One even joked about it hysterically saying, ‘I am next, ha-ha-ha! If Martin can do it then mountains are about to melt.’

‘Did something hit that guy’s head while coming here?’ another asked.

Martin, John’s neighbor and almost what you would call friend, was what you would call typical cowardice. He would literally freeze in the middle of terror and sometimes even faint.

‘What is it about this place?’ someone asked, ‘that even cowards are becoming bold.’

‘When you are weak then you are strong,’ said the Curator quoting the Bible, ‘For he came, not for the strong nor the wealthy, but the weak and poor.’

And the crowd literally went silent.

‘Come here my friend,’ said the Curator, ‘I will give you a few tips.’

Then he whispered a few things to Martin. As though a switch had been flipped, Martin’s face turned from pale to bright and from sad to great joy.

‘Man, we need those tips’ someone shouted.

‘What did he tell you man?’ another added.

Unmoved by any of the crowd’s muttering being sure of what he had received, Martin went straight to frozen John. He knelt and whispered, ‘do not fear, for the Lord is your strength and the light of your salvation.’

John begun to weep while getting up, not because of what Martin had said, but because he had held himself in condemnation for so long while trying to be the strong man of everyone else. He was trying to keep the appearance of strength even when he knew that he had it was not necessary, an appearance of boldness not willing to ask for help even though it was offered.

Martin held his hand and said, ‘let’s do this together.’

‘That’s okay. I wouldn’t want it any other way,’ John replied.