Ebenezer Christian and the Three Christmas Spirits, Chapter 13

(If you wish to read Ebenezer Christian and the Three Christmas Spirits from the beginning, click here for the table of contents.)

Chapter Thirteen

The Stable and the Cross

     Ebenezer Christian faced what appeared to be the ground floor of a two-story home. Just inside the darkened entrance he saw a small corral, crudely built of whatever branches could be scavenged from the few nearby trees that had wood hard enough to serve the purpose. It seemed to Ebenezer Christian that most of the trees nearby were date palms.  

     A few donkeys rested within the corral. This primitive spot was a stable.  Ebenezer Christian was surprised that the ground floor of someone's home should be used as a stable; but these were different times in a different culture.

     "Is this where it all began?" Ebenezer Christian asked.

     "Yes, it is."

     Ebenezer Christian involuntarily looked up. "Where's the Star?"

     "The Star of Bethlehem is over there to the west of us." She pointed to a star that shined somewhat brighter than the surrounding stars.

     "I thought it was supposed to be directly over the stable."

     "No, not for another seventy days, when the Wise Men arrive. At this time, the Earth is tilted on its axis in such a way that the Wise Men in the East now see it directly west of them—and west of us, too, I might add. Follow me." She passed through the rails of the corral and entered the house, and Ebenezer Christian followed her.

     "It sure stinks in here," Ebenezer Christian said.

     "Well, it is a stable," the spirit replied.

     "I know that, but you'd think somebody would have cleaned it out for the Holy Family."

     "They cleaned it out as well as they could, but it's still a stable. They couldn't make it smell good."

     A minute or so after Ebenezer Christian had entered, his eyes adjusted to the semi-darkness. At his feet, he saw a man of about thirty sleeping on a bed of straw. Beside him, awake and pensive, sat a girl of about fifteen years of age. "Mary was that young?" he asked.

     "Mary would have found little in common with the American teenagers of today," the spirit replied. "Life was hard in those days, and it demanded much of people. At fifteen, Mary was a mature young woman."

     He became aware of another odor. "Something smells like body odor," he remarked.

     "It is human body odor," the spirit replied. "It was a long way from Nazareth. Since there was no room for them in the inn, they couldn't take a bath. They bathed in the Jordan River on the way down here, but that was days ago."

     Ebenezer Christian looked to Mary's left. There against the wall was a feeding trough for animals. Lying in the manger, wrapped in strips of old cloth, the newborn Baby Jesus slept peacefully.

     The images echoed through Ebenezer Christian's heart: a Baby, born in a stable, amid animal dung and body odor, wrapped in strips of old cloth for baby clothes, using hay for a bed. Our Lord and Savior was born in this miserable place under these miserable conditions.

     The Christmas stories that had always been presented to Ebenezer Christian had been highly sanitized and sentimentalized. What he saw before him scarcely seemed the like same story. One version of the story was like a parody of the other. Ebenezer Christian was sure he knew which was the parody and which was reality.

     Ebenezer Christian turned his eyes upon the face of the sleeping Baby Jesus. "He looks just like any other baby," he whispered.

     "And this looks just like many other stables in this area," the spirit replied, then added, "and David, who later became King David, looked just like any other shepherd."

     The Baby stirred and began to cry a little.

     Mary gently lifted Him from the manger and laid Him on her lap. She drew her bodice aside and presented her breast. Jesus' first feeding began.

     "Should we be watching this?" Ebenezer Christian asked.

     "Ordinarily, no," the spirit replied, "but it's important for you to know the truth—all of it. The Gospel of Luke 11:27, (KJV) graphically mentions what you now see. Bible translations published since the Victorian Age have become increasingly squeamish in their choice of words. For now, though, there's something else you must watch." The spirit waved her hand in a wide, circular motion, as though erasing the scene of the Madonna and Child from Ebenezer Christian's view.

     Through the patch of space the shade had cleared, Ebenezer Christian saw the backs of several Roman soldiers. Between them, he saw that they were holding someone's arm flat against a wooden beam. One of the soldiers placed a six-inch nail to the victim's wrist. The other soldier swung a mallet, driving the nail through the wrist and into the beam. The victim screamed loudly enough to shatter Ebenezer Christian's emotions and momentarily knock the breath out of him.

     Ebenezer Christian caught his breath and said, "He must be one of the thieves who were crucified with Jesus. Jesus wouldn't have screamed like that."

     "The two thieves were roped to their crosses," the shade replied. "When the nail pierced Jesus' wrist, it passed through the median nerve: the main nerve to the hand. It was no sin or sign of weakness for Him to scream. His pain was real."

     He watched as the soldiers lifted the crossbeam up to the part of the cross that stood erect in the ground and fixed the crossbeam into place. It was then that Ebenezer Christian saw our suffering Lord.

     The soldiers still had to put the third and final nail in place. As they went about their work, Ebenezer Christian was not able to see anything below Jesus' knees, but what he did see was shocking and wretched. Jesus was bloodied and bruised from His head to His knees.

     The crown of thorns (which was more like a cap than a crown) that had been placed on His head earlier that day had torn the skin in several places. A small trickle of blood forming a backward "3" had formed across the furrows over His left eyebrow. His right eye was blackened and swollen shut from the blow He had received from a Roman baton, and the bruise next to His eye was over two inches wide.

     Almost every square inch of His body had been lacerated by Roman whips. Each whip had four tails, and each tail had been tipped with a small, barbell-shaped bit of lead designed to tear into the flesh of its victim. Each laceration dripped with blood. Blood flowed from His wrists down each of His arms.

     The ordeal of carrying His crossbeam to Golgotha also had left its marks upon His body.

     "Even today," remarked the shade, "people walking along that rocky road find their footing so unsteady that a healthy, well-fed, well-rested person can not carry they weight Jesus carried without stumbling many times. Jesus had not slept or eaten since the Wednesday night before His arrest; and he had been tried and tortured within an inch of His life all day Thursday and into Thursday night."
     "I thought He had been arrested on Thursday night or early Friday morning," Ebenezer Christian pondered.
        "That's what most people think," the spirit replied.  "The many events between Jesus' arrest and crucifixion were spread out over a period of more than a few hours.  It was actually a day and a few hours."

     The act of carrying the crossbeam had caused ugly abrasions on Jesus' right shoulder. Stumbling and caused contusions on both knees and His right elbow. His nose was bleeding and looked as if it had been damaged—possibly as the result of a fall.

     Ebenezer Christian caught his breath and sighed, "I'd never realized how much He suffered. He looks awful." A moment later, he caught his breath again. "He's naked," he breathed, as though he had been punched in the chest. "I thought He had a cloth to cover His nakedness."

     "No, he didn't. People have a hard time accepting a suffering and naked Christ. A thousand years ago, painters found the idea so revolting that paintings from that day actually showed Him in purple robes, wearing a kingly crown and looking triumphant. Even today, people try to hide from the reality of the cross.

     "Some people want to have Jesus without the cross, and others want to have the cross without Jesus—as a mere ornament. But why don't people wear replicas of electric chairs or guillotines? They're all instruments of execution. It's because of Jesus that people wear the cross, although many people prefer to forget this.

     "Unless we comprehend the enormity of our sins, we can't comprehend the immensity of God's justice. Unless we comprehend the magnitude of Jesus' sufferings when He was crucified, we can't comprehend the magnanimity of God's love.

     "A little earlier, you may have gotten the impression that great Christian art is a thing of the past. The truth is, a few contemporary artists effectively portrayed the suffering you see before you. Unfortunately, very few Christians want to see it. They prefer to sentimentalize the crucifixion."

     As the shade was saying this, the Roman soldier who had nailed Jesus to the cross turned and looked at Ebenezer Christian, full in the face. Both the soldier and Ebenezer Christian gasped when they saw one another. The Roman soldier's face was the face of Ebenezer Christian.

     The scene vanished.

     Ebenezer Christian saw that Mary had returned Jesus to the manger. He was aware of a presence over his left shoulder, but by the time he turned around, it was gone. He had the vague impression, though, that the visitor had been one of the shepherds to which the angels had appeared.

     A few minutes later, four shepherds smelling strongly of sheep stepped cautiously and reverently into the stable. Mary shook Joseph awake. Joseph stirred a little uncertainly at first, and then he saw the strangers and sprang to his feet.

     In the Aramaic tongue, the shepherds (judging from their gestures) excitedly told Joseph about the angelic visitation. Ebenezer Christian noted that, just as the angel had said, Jesus was swathed in strips of cloth and lying in a manger. If the shepherds had arrived only a few minutes earlier, the scene would have been slightly different, and the shepherds would not have had their “sign.” Mary drew her sleeping Baby from the manger and held Him in her arms.

     The shepherds at first seemed at a loss as to what to do. They knew He was their Savior, as the angel had told him; but they also saw that He looked like any other baby. Just how do you react to Someone Who is the Savior and at the same time a Baby?

     They saw and believed.  So did Ebenezer Christian.

    Not that he had ever doubted, mind you; but not doubting is not the same thing as fully believing. Previously, he had believed for the same reason that most people believe almost anything that most people believe (such as the proposition that the Earth is round) because belief worked better than disbelief. It had been a matter of utilitarian convenience.

     Now that Ebenezer Christian had come face-to-face with Jesus Himself, his belief was a matter of unshakable conviction. Moved to tears, Ebenezer Christian fell to his knees beside the shepherds and worshiped the Christ Child.

     As he struggled for the words to express his adoration, Ebenezer Christian's tongue wavered between silence and words he felt were far too inadequate. He began to stammer and babble; and as a joyous Spirit rushed into him, his stammering and babbling were transmuted into what he later was to describe as the pure language of the spirit. Far removed from the arbitrary sounds invented by men, the words Ebenezer Christian uttered in those moments expressed the very essence of the things he felt in his heart.

     As Ebenezer Christian wept and prayed, an arm wrapped around his shoulder and began shaking him. A woman's voice called his name several times.

     Ebenezer Christian woke up, kneeling on his own bed. His wife Mary Martha Christian said, "Wake up, Eb! I thought you were going crazy! You were having a bad dream!"

     "No," he corrected her. "I was having the best dream I've had in my life!"  From the beginning, he started telling her about it.

*          *          *

     (This novella, Ebenezer Christian and the Three Christmas Spirits, has proven to be the least popular series I've ever posted.  Since Tuesday of last week, I've seen readership of the American Action Report dive from a modest 185 page views a day to an embarrassing 74, and a drop to only 7 returning visitors.  I have long believed that spiritual renewal was essential to the restoration of our liberties and our republic, and I had hoped to encourage this renewal through the medium of fiction; but I don't know if anyone is reading it.  Unless someone wants to read the conclusion of this Christmas story, I see no reason to further burden anyone's patience by posting it.)

Ebenezer Christian and the Three Christmas Spirits, Chapter 12

     (If you wish to read Ebenezer Christian and the Three Christmas Spirits from the beginning, or read chapters you may have missed, click here for the table of contents.)

Chapter Twelve

The Last of the Three Spirits

     Ebenezer Christian stood in total darkness.

     The unrecognizable voice of a woman said to him, "I must prepare you for what you're about to see."

     "Is it that terrible?"

     "What you're about to see is both terrible and wonderful. Your brain is equipped to accept things you experience through the eyes, the ears, the nose, the taste buds and your sense of touch. Since you are about to experience some things that are beyond the five senses, the only way your brain will be able to accept them will be by reinterpreting them. You will see things beyond human sight and hear things beyond human hearing."

     Ebenezer Christian sensed that the owner of the voice had waved her arm in a wide sweep because, when he could see, he noticed the final flourish of the arm. The woman who stood before him resembled she who had stood on the street: the one to whom he had given twenty-dollars (or should that be $320?), when he'd intended to give her only a quarter.

     With another wave of her arm, she gestured to his left. "Look!" she instructed.

     The place they stood was obviously a shepherd's field. Across the rolling, grassy field, close to a hundred sheep had settled down for the night. About ten to fifteen feet from Ebenezer Christian, three shepherds warmed themselves before a fire. One, who spoke to the other two, was standing; the others sat listening. Somewhere off to the right, another shepherd was walking toward them.

     Ebenezer Christian couldn't understand their language, let alone tell what they were saying. It was clear, though, that the one standing was telling a joke that either was bawdy or which would have been considered offensive by the person who was the butt of the joke. The others laughed the laugh of people who inwardly know the wrongness of their humor. Each vied with the others to celebrate his own crudity.

     "These aren't the shepherds of the Christmas story, are they?" said Ebenezer Christian with incredulity.

     "Yes, they are," came the reply. "The real-life shepherds of Biblical times were not the stuff of pastoral poems and legends that were written during the Middle Ages, or of such modern children’s stories as Heidi. In those days, shepherds were seen as crude men and boys who—if given the chance—would steal. Some sank even lower than this."

     "But David was a shepherd. Doesn't that count for something?"

     "It counts only insofar as the lesson that we shouldn't stereotype groups of people. It also counts insofar as God is continuously showing us that He looks upon the heart and not upon outward appearances or social status. He can turn a pauper into a king or send a king away empty handed. He can take each person who accepts Him and raise him above whatever shortcomings or disadvantages he may have.

     "Yes," the spirit repeated, "these crass wretches are the shepherds in the story of the first Christmas. The pasture is owned by the Temple in Jerusalem; and the sheep are the unblemished sheep sold to out-of-town visitors for the purpose of sacrifices in the Temple. Outwardly, it's considered a holy calling, but it has become a profitable business to the family of the high priest. The shepherds can't help but know this. How can anyone blame the shepherds for their lack of piety, when the high priests themselves have profaned this sacred field?"

     A soundless explosion of light burst across the entire countryside. Ebenezer Christian, the shade, and the shepherds suddenly stopped speaking.

     A second later, one of the shepherds—terrified—fell to his knees, pointed toward the sky, and screamed something. The shepherds and Ebenezer Christian reflexively looked in the direction the first shepherd had pointed.

     In a brightness many times as dazzling as the light that illuminated the countryside, a ghostly silhouette of light was walking downward from a cloud. Ebenezer Christian and the shepherds fell on their faces and cringed. All hid their faces, even while trying to see the thing that was coming toward them. The spirit that had been speaking to Ebenezer Christian was rendered invisible by the light.

     What they all felt, strictly speaking, was not fear because fear has a distinct object. What they felt was a combination of dread and awe: dread of something completely beyond their comprehension, and awe at its power and apparent authority.

     When the blazing visitor reached a spot about twenty feet above and in front of the terrified shepherds and Ebenezer Christian, it spoke to them:

     "Don't be afraid, for I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people!"

     The awe-struck men raised themselves up a bit, daring to look without completely uncovering their eyes. They now were able to make out some of the details of the angel's face and body. Though they felt a little assured by the words the angel spoke, the angel was terrible to behold. Throughout the angel's message, they remained on their knees.

     The angel continued, "For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord; and this shall be a sign to you: You will find the babe wrapped in strips of cloth and lying in a manger."

     In the next instant, the sky became filled with thousands of angelic beings praising God. Over and over, in unison and individually, Ebenezer Christian heard them shout such things as, "Glory to God in the highest, and to Earth peace, goodwill toward all men!"

     Not half content with shouting and singing, the angelic beings began to dance and wave their arms. Ebenezer Christian stood up and stared at them, scarcely believing his eyes. The spirit, now appearing beside him, remarked, "In thousands of years, this is the happiest day they've ever known."

     Some of the angels—then several of them—then many of them darted across the sky as erratically as swallows and as rapidly as meteors. Here and there, small groups of angels playfully chased and circled each other like butterflies. Their songs and shouts were joined by joyous laughter and giddy whoops and other noises. Their sounds and movements, though synchronized, became increasingly rapid and increasingly complex.

     This display across the heavens soon reached a point that it was beyond human comprehension. Ebenezer Christian realized that he was seeing what no human eye could see: an expression of pure joy splashed from horizon to horizon.

     Suddenly the whole scene exploded upon Ebenezer Christian, bathing him with such divine love, filling him with such joy, that tears burst from his eyes. In that same instant, all, once again, was quiet and dark.

     [In every Christmas presentation Ebenezer Christian had ever seen, the angels' annunciation to the shepherds was treated almost perfunctorily, as if those in charge of the program wanted to get past that part of the story as soon as possible. He knew of no Christian songs dealing specifically with the scene he had just witnessed. For future Christmas programs, though, Ebenezer Christian recommended that the choir of angels sing the song "Shine, Jesus, Shine!"]

     The shepherds struggled to their feet and spoke excitedly to one another. Those crass souls with unclean lips had just witnessed something that changed their lives forever. They were radiant!

     Though Ebenezer Christian could not understand what they were saying, it was clear that they were eager to leave for Bethlehem that very minute. Leaving their sheep behind them, they rushed southward to find the Baby Who already had changed their lives and Who soon would change the world.

     "Let's go ahead of them," the spirit said to Ebenezer Christian. With those words, she waved her arm.

Ebenezer Christian and the Three Christmas Spirits, Chapter 11

        If you're addicted to the feel-good variety of Christianity, you'll want to skip this chapter.  What does the commandment "Love thy neighbor" really mean?  On the vital issues of the day, many pious people completely blow it, even as they pat themselves on the back for their faux Christian charity.  What about liberals, conservatives, libertarians, or others with political agenda?  Do they completely blow it?  Well, maybe not completely.  Read on.
     At this writing, Christmas is barely a week away. In 2001, a few weeks after Christmas, I wrote this novella as a reaction against the way Christmas has become a racket. Many of the worst offenders are professing Christians who have bought into the Christmas racket and are contributing to the world's problems by participating in that racket.

     We need to reconnect with the world, and we need to rethink Christmas.

     Over the coming days, I intend to finish posting each of the fourteen chapters and addendum to Ebenezer Christian and the Three Christmas Spirits. The following is Chapter Eleven.  For the Table of Contents to Ebenezer Christian and the Three Christmas Spirits, click HERE.

Chapter Eleven

The Second of Three Christmas Spirits

     "It’s you!” Ebenezer Christian blurted. “The member of that hate group!”

     “I don’t know what you mean,” the spirit responded. “I’m not mortal, so I can’t be a member of any human organization.”

     “What are you supposed to show me?”

     “An eager beaver, aren’t you? Oh, well. You won’t have to go far for your first revelation.”

     “Where are we going?”

     “Your living room, a few hours ago.”

     “You mean, while my wife and daughter and I were out looking at Christmas decorations?”

     “That’s right, and your son stayed home.”

     Several negative thoughts flashed through Ebenezer Christian’s mind all at once: pornographic or demonic web sites, R-rated videotapes or DVDs, violence-oriented music, and other thoughts came to mind.

     As if reading his thoughts, the spirit said, “No, it isn’t anything he brought into the house from the outside; it’s something you brought into the house.”

     “Me? I’m not interested in anything erotic or violent, and I’m certainly not interested in anything demonic. I’ve always fought against those sorts of things, not only in my home but also in the community. What could I have brought into the house that’s sinful?”

     “Yes, you’ve always fought against the glorification of violence, the debasement of sex, and demonic obsession; but you’ve made no serious effort to replace the void with a love of peace, a healthy respect for sex, or family devotions. As a result, all the evils you mention now enter your house with the full power of Satan. Look!”

     At that word, Ebenezer Christian’s living room appeared to him, and he saw his son watching network television. In that one cop show, Ebenezer Christian saw violence glorified, the human body wrongfully presented, and Christianity attacked as a burdensome relic of less enlightened eras. Further, the characters in the show peppered their speech with vulgarities. “And that,” said the spirit, “is just one of many shows that propagate the doctrines of demons.”

     “I don’t allow videogames or erotic literature in my house,” Ebenezer Christian fumbled. “To think that I actually bought and welcomed this purveyor of sinful behavior into the house myself. I should throw it out.”

     “There’s still the question of what you would use to fill the void. And you’re wrong when you say you don’t allow erotic literature into your house. Song of Solomon, in The Bible is the greatest work of erotic literature of antiquity and probably the greatest ever.”

     “But that’s okay because it’s in the Bible. Besides, it doesn’t really refer to sex. It’s an allegory for God’s love for us.”

     “That's beside the point. In order for an allegory to be useful, the illustration has to be as true as the thing it illustrates. Allegory or not, Song of Solomon clearly shows us that sexual passion has a place in God’s will, and it shows us what that place is: one man and one woman married to one another—passionately and sexually attracted exclusively to one another for life. That's the prime difference between eroticism and pornography; but since contemporary Christians equate one with the other, that message is lost.

     “The sad truth is,” the spirit continued, “contemporary Christians have abdicated their responsibility to present that message because contemporary Christians are too squeamish to discuss sensitive matters. Because only one side of the debate is heard—that of the Enemy, the Destroyer—Christians are losing.”

     “You mean, the culture war?”

     “The culture war has been going on for many centuries. The term has become popular only since Christians have chosen to become conscientious objectors in the culture war.”

     “That’s not fair. You seem not to know that only a few months ago Christians—and I’m one of them—succeeded in closing down a bar that was a strip joint just outside of town.”

     The spirit glared at Ebenezer Christian with thinly-disguised impatience. “When you use the power of government to force people to behave as if they were Christians,” the shade demanded, “do you really think you’re furthering God’s Kingdom on Earth? You can’t bullwhip people into the Kingdom of Heaven; they must be drawn into it. A lot of professing Christians used a great deal of their time and energy to close that place; and, in the end, no one’s spiritual life was improved the slightest bit. The patrons of that place have other outlets for their urges, and their souls are still bound for eternal damnation. Truly, you have lost sight of the Great Commission.”

     “Hey, wait a minute! A moment ago, you were condemning me for allowing anti-Christian television shows into my house. Now you’re condemning me for not allowing a strip joint into my community.”

     “Your house is your own property, and the products advertised on those television shows are intended to be bought with your money. The sponsors of television programs, like other advertisers, want to know why people do, or do not, buy their products. When you write to the corporate sponsors of a television program and tell why you don’t buy their product, you’re helping them to make wise business decisions. They realize this, even if some of them think you’re being unnecessarily intolerant. You also should write to offer your support to corporate sponsors of healthier programs.”

     The spirit paused for a moment and changed gears. “When you were growing up,” the shade began, “did you watch the old Dracula movies?”

     Ebenezer Christian was taken aback. “Yes, why?”

     “The old horror movies were morality plays. In several of the Dracula movies, someone would say that Dracula could not enter a person’s house unless someone inside the house invited him in. After being invited into someone's house the first time, Dracula could come and go at will. That’s true of any evil. It behooves one to be careful. It also should behoove you not to throw out the baby with the bath water."

     "What do you mean?"

     "Contemporary Christians have become estranged from their bodies, and they've become far too squeamish about bodily functions. They act as if bodily functions were nasty things that Satan slipped into the human condition when God wasn't looking. The Bible freely mentions bodily functions. The Bible mentions almost everything that can leave the body through emission, secretion, expression, excretion, or by other means. The only one it doesn't mention is mucus. The Bible writers didn't dwell on these things, but they weren't squeamish about them, either. Because they didn't fear bodily functions, they were able to speak and write freely about the sins against the body. If the Bible had been written by contemporary Christians, people would have no way of knowing that they were sins because they would be considered too disgusting to be included in the Holy Scriptures. As a consequence, people would know that these things were disgusting, but they wouldn't know they were sinful."

     "You make it sound as if I'm narrow-minded. I'm not."

     The spirit changed the focus of his remarks. "I see no reason to dwell upon things these things, which you obviously find revolting. Let's draw our attention to something completely foreign to your sensibilities."

     "And what's that?"

     "Christian art."

     "Oh, come now! You don't know a thing about my appreciation of art."

     "So, tell me."

     "I've saved Christian art as background on my computer, and I have several reproductions in my home. I have quite a fondness for Christian art."

     "Reproductions, you say?"

     "Well, what of it? I'm sure I couldn't afford to buy an original painting or sculpture of the quality of Michelangelo or Leonardo da Vinci."

     "Renaissance artists. Don't you know of any great Christian art that was created during your lifetime?"

     "Well, no, not really."

     "Or in the last one hundred years?"

     "What are you suggesting?"

   "I'm suggesting that contemporary Christians lack the boldness that was characteristic of Christians prior to 1900. Prior to 1900, Christians were the impetus for great reform movements, such as animal protection, child labor laws, and the abolition of slavery, to mention only a few. Christian artists were equally bold. Many of the great Christian art works of the Renaissance and early modern times would be considered scandalous if they were painted today. On virtually all the important environmental and humanitarian issues of today, Christians either leave the field to the enemy or, worse, follow the enemy's lead."

     Ebenezer Christian bristled at that last suggestion. "I am certainly not following the enemy's lead!" he said sternly, carefully pronouncing each word through his teeth. "I defy you to tell me how."

     "I can give you dozens of examples," the spirit calmly responded.

     "Never mind the dozens; give me one."

     "Okay, environmentalism."

     "What of it?"

     "What does the Bible say about environmentalism?"

     "Not a thing, specifically, but we can figure that Christians are supposed to practice stewardship over the world, just as we're supposed to practice stewardship over everything else God has made and given to us."

     "The truth is," the spirit said, "the Bible contains enough verses on environmentalism to fill a hundred-page book. Between the very first verse of the Bible to the next-to-last chapter, the Bible tells you everything you need to know about environmental responsibility. It tells us that God made the earth, He has authority over it, and He has over a half dozen purposes for it. It clearly spells out what attitude we should have concerning it and gives us countless commandments—mainly in Numbers, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy. Sadly, instead of reading the Bible, Christians either have chosen to seek wisdom from New Age jeremiads, effectively worshiping creation instead of the Creator; or they've avoided their responsibility altogether. Do your research and compare the Bible to the most respected environmentalist book you know. Compared to the Bible, all else is drivel."

     The spirit paused a moment and said, "When Calvin Coolidge first became President of the United States, a Christian organization came to visit him and presented him with one of their Bibles. He remarked, `Gentlemen, this book contains the solutions to all the world's problems.' Sad to say, most Christians no longer believe this; and, like dumb sheep, they bleat the nostrum that you shouldn't `mix religion with politics.’ As a result, when Christians do get involved in the vital issues of the day, most of them leave their Bibles behind and follow the Judas goats. Even worse, many Christians today try to attach a Christian label to secular answers to the world's problems instead of allowing themselves to be led by the Holy Spirit, as Christians had done for eighteen centuries."

     "I don't know," Ebenezer Christian said reluctantly. "A lot of Christians who go into politics give me the creeps."

     "A lot of them give me the creeps, too. Most Americans wisely prefer elected officials who are Christians, or righteous within their own faith, but they also are reluctant to vote for candidates who are fronting for an organization that uses Christianity as a rationale for its political agenda."

     "Are you saying that they're not really Christians?"

     "Not at all. What I'm saying is, they have the same limitations as all other humans. Many ministers and leaders of Christian, Jewish, and Muslim service organizations have gone into state and local politics. They generally have carried their attitudes of service with them. They generally have been most effective at the levels of government that comes into closest contact with the people they serve.

     "Leaders of groups that pressure for reform regarding a narrow range of issues have been most effective in providing information and advice to officeholders. When one of them is elected to public office, though, two things go wrong. First, that person goes into office with the attitude of grasping for the power to make the changes he desires. The agenda of his organization is presented as `the Christian agenda,’ and it quickly becomes an authoritarian agenda. He also finds himself in a position that calls upon him to face a wide range of human needs, although he's interested (and informed) only regarding a narrow range of interests. No matter how well-intentioned he is, he's going to cause harm.

     "As a rule of thumb, the officeholder who is educated in morals but not in mind will unintentionally cause harm. The officeholder who is educated in mind but not in morals is a menace to society."

     The spirit returned to an earlier topic. “A moment ago, you were speaking of bringing evil things into your house. Didn't your wife say you were very thoughtful for buying her a chandelier?”

     “Yes,” Ebenezer Christian smiled. “She couldn’t stop saying how thoughtful I was.”

     “Actually, you weren’t being thoughtful at all. You were being thoughtless and insensitive.”

     Ebenezer Christian was visibly shaken and hurt by that remark. The spirit waved his arm, and the scene changed. Before them, they saw a factory in which dozens of Asians were grinding glass for chandeliers.

     One Asian in particular drew their attention. He was a young man, grinder in hand, working away at a crystal. Every couple of minutes the man would go into a fit of coughing. “The man you see before you,” the shade remarked, “is the one who made the chandelier you bought your wife.”

     “Shouldn’t these people be wearing face masks?” Ebenezer Christian asked.

     “Yes, they should, but this is a slave labor camp. The lives of these unhappy souls mean little to their masters. This man is a Christian minister. He was convicted of conducting a Bible study in his home.”

     “You must mean the underground church: those illegal house churches. I don't see why they don't just go ahead and register their church with the government as the law requires. Doesn't the Bible say we should render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's?"

     "Would you want to go to a church that forbids the book of Revelation, or that forbids the teaching that God is Lord of all, or that Jesus will come again? Would you want to attend a church whose minister is appointed by atheists and who must toe the government line? You said you weren’t interested in-what was the word? Oh: ‘politics.’ Well, he’s not interested in politics, either. He never was; but the politicians are interested in him.”

     The man was seized by another fit of coughing. "Tien-de ba," he muttered aloud, "Wo yi-shah yau jen-dau Ni. Ching Ni ban wo tai-tai, wo jya-ren, Ni-de jao-yo. Amen." ("Heavenly Father, I soon will meet you. Please help my wife, my family and the members of my church. Amen.") Ebenezer Christian couldn't understand the words the man had uttered, but from the "amen" at the end, he knew it was a prayer. Under the circumstances, it probably had to be concise.

     “Is it that cold in here?” Ebenezer Christian asked.

    “No,” the spirit replied. “He doesn’t have pneumonia or even the common cold. It’s much worse than that. He has silicosis. Tiny particles of glass he has been inhaling are shredding his lungs. He was given a three-year prison sentence. In this place, a three-year sentence amounts to a death sentence. When he dies, another miserable soul will take his place. What you see here is just the tip of the iceberg. This sort of thing takes place all over this man’s country and several other countries besides. As for the toys children receive at Christmas: Ebenezer Christian, those toys are not made by cheerful elves in a little workshop at the North Pole. An alarming percentage of them are made by slaves or by children doomed to sweatshops, often under dangerous conditions."

     “Can’t anything be done about this sort of thing?”

     “It’s already illegal to import things produced by slave labor, but the law isn’t enforced. Sweatshop labor is hard to define because expectations vary from one country to another. Until existing laws are enforced, you can stop buying products from countries that use slave labor or that abusively exploit children for commercial gain."

     The spirit waved his arm again.

     “Where are we now?” asked Ebenezer Christian.

     “We’re in the home of a family that goes to your church. This was the scene in his home after the man and his family came home from the yellow ribbon party your church held for him.”  Ebenezer Christian recognized them.

     The scene was subdued. The family tried to make the setting seem as joyful as they could, but the man appeared pensive and depressed. He spoke as if he felt that no one had really forgiven him, and that his many months in prison had taught a lesson to no one but himself. The family tried to console him, saying that people really didn’t know what to say to him and probably had chosen their words poorly.

     “What does he mean by this?” Ebenezer protested. “What member of the church didn’t forgive him?

     “None of them,” the spirit replied. “Least of all, you.”

     “Of course, I forgave him!”

     “No, you didn’t. Do you remember what you wrote on the yellow ribbon you had signed for him? You wrote that it was okay, and that it could have happened to anyone.”

     “How is it that you don’t see forgiveness in that?”

     “Because it wasn’t okay, and the man knew it. He had killed someone. He’s out of prison now, but the dead man is still dead, and the dead man’s children are still fatherless. Your brother in the faith was in need of forgiveness, but all you offered him was an excuse. It was a lame excuse at that. It’s not forgiveness unless you recognize the enormity of his sin.”

     “I wouldn’t use the word ‘enormity.’ All he did was double park. A lot of people do that every day.”

     “That’s one more reason he’s depressed. Even if you don’t realize it, he does. He selfishly placed his own convenience above the safety of his fellow human beings. He learned his lesson at a terrible price; but he had hoped, as well, that his friends and fellow church members would have learned it without having to pay a similar price. He feels as if he paid the penalty both for his own sin and so that others can learn from his experience. That’s why he feels that his sin remains unforgiven, and that anything good that can come of it is despised by his friends.”

     The spirit waved his arm again, and the scene changed.

     “We’re inside the Van Doren Stable.”

     The Van Doren Stable was a monument to an earlier time. During the first half of the twentieth century—and before—every small town in America had livery stables and yards for the convenience of farmers or for men who earned part of their living by plowing people’s home gardens.

     The Van Doren Stable was an impressive brick structure that had been built by Phillip van Doren (note the lower case “v” in the name van Doren) in the center of Bedford Falls in the year 1901. After the style of the day, it boasted a false front that caused people to think of the Alamo. It was roofed, although its roof was decayed and allowed patches of sunlight to enter the building. Its wide, double doors had been closed for about forty years.

     It may sound odd that a livery stable should be located in the very center of town, right next door to the small building that houses the police station and the town hall. At the time Van Doren Stables was built, however, that was considered the most reasonable location for a livery stable.  The sight of the Van Doren Stables towering over the one-storey municipal building and spreading across an area twice as wide and four times as deep as the town hall is even more incongruous.

     Its location made it some of the most valuable property in Bedford Falls. The owner, Donna van Doren was often given generous offers for it, but she refused to sell it. She also refused to develop it.

     Elderly people who have never married or had children usually find substitutes for children and grandchildren. Many fill their homes with cats or dogs and shower their affection upon them. Others—such as Donna van Doren—fill their scrapbooks with family histories and genealogies; allowing their ancestors to serve as surrogates for descendants.

     Van Doren Stables was her monument—or her shrine—to her grandfather, who had built it.  Anyone viewing the Van Doren Stables from the front would see the raised letters across the top, reading, “Van Doren Stables,” under which the date is given, “1901”. One would have to approach the double doors to see the rusted chains and padlock, or the official notice forbidding anyone to enter, “by order of the…County Health Department.”

     For forty years, virtually the only violators of this order were, ironically, the policemen on duty in the station next door. During the 1950s and early ‘60s, one occasionally heard whispered rumors of policemen spiriting suspects to the bullpen in order to impress upon them the seriousness of their intentions.

     After many years of lying unused, even as an interrogation room, the Van Doren Stables were visited once again: by Ebenezer Christian, the spirit, and by two other people.

     Through a decaying wooden door in the side of the building, two skulking figures entered. Ebenezer Christian’s blood froze.

     Momentarily, Ebenezer Christian was able to see them more clearly. They were a man and a woman. Right away, he knew that they must be the same man and woman who had hidden in the church earlier that day.

     “Yes,” the spirit said in response to Ebenezer Christian’s unspoken thoughts. “They are the same couple who were turned away from a shelter for homeless people. Then they were turned away from a church. The time for her baby to be born is near. They have come here, expecting the mother to give birth to her child in a stable.”

     “Like Jesus,” whispered Ebenezer Christian.

     “Yes, exactly like Jesus.”

     “Why do you emphasize the word, `exactly'?”

     “Didn’t Jesus say that, whatever you do for the least of His brethren, you’ve done also to Him? And that, whatever you’ve failed to do for the least of His brethren, you’ve failed to do unto Him?”

     Ebenezer Christian and the spirit watched the couple choose a stall that wasn’t filled with discarded or abandoned items. The man found the remains of an old broom and began sweeping the stall. The broom was nothing more than broomcorn that had been tightly bound with bailing wire—the sort of thing people used as brooms a half-century earlier—but it served its purpose.

     The man searched the stable for anything that could serve as bedding and blankets. The small amount of hay that remained crumbled to dust in his hands. He found enough burlap bags to provide for his wife’s needs, shook the dust from them as well as he could, and he laid them out for her. He elected to do without bedding for himself.

     The entire process took about a half hour.

     Then Ebenezer Christian’s attention was drawn to the sound of two more intruders entering the stable. As they entered, a flashlight pierced the darkness. “This is the police!” a man’s voice sternly said. “Step into the light slowly, where we can see you!”

     Though the couple did not understand the words the policeman had spoken, they knew the drill and instinctively obeyed. The husband pleaded their case as well as he could in his limited English. His wife was about to have a baby, and they had been turned away from everywhere they had tried. The policemen seemed not to understand them. Even if they did, they still were charged with enforcing the law. "It's not safe here," one of them said slowly and deliberately.

     The couple spoke to one another, making some attempt to understand what the policeman had said.

     The policeman tried again, "Perigrosa! Perigrosa!" he said carefully. He had seen that word, or something like it, written on a lot of dangerous places in the movies. He figured it must mean either "dangerous" or "keep out.”

     The man and his wife repeated the sound to each other; then a look of recognition crossed the woman's face. "Ahhh!" she said. "Peligrosa!"

     "Si," the policeman said. "Peligrosa."

     The man, in astonishment, said to his wife, "Esta mas seguro la calle?" (Is the street safer?)

     "Que tiene gracia!" (What a joke!) she replied.

     The couple made another plea. “Es Christmas,” the man said in a mixture of English and Spanish. It was to no avail.

     “We’ll give you a ride out of town,” one of the policemen said, as if they were doing the couple a favor.

     Ebenezer Christian said to the spirit, "This is a vacant building; it has been for many years. Even Jesus' parents were allowed this much. What could be the harm of letting them stay here?"

     "No harm at all,” the spirit replied. "None at all. In almost every town in America, and in every city, there are people who can't afford housing at available costs. Yet, in almost every town in America, and in every city, there exists affordable housing for them, but the buildings are vacant by order of local government. The Health Department has decided that it's better for people to live on the streets or in a dumpster than in buildings that are unacceptable to the sort of people who live on quiet, tree-lined streets or in posh suburbs. Donna van Doren, the owner of this building, was not consulted in the matter; and, as you saw, neither were Jose and Miriam Santos: the couple who stand before you."

     Ebenezer Christian was only a little surprised to hear that the woman had a Jewish-sounding given name. When there is an intermingling of cultures, one of the consequences is an intermingling of names. Ebenezer Christian's own niece had the Spanish name Carmen. From college, he remembered reading of a hero named Bernardo O'Higgins, who had championed Chilean independence from Spain in 1814.

     Ebenezer Christian managed an attempt at distancing himself from the behavior of the policemen. "I've always felt the government should do more for the poor," he said.

     Without rancor, the spirit responded, "You find it easy to say that because you don't think your own tax burden will be—or should be—affected. As such, you presume to give what is not yours to give. That's not generosity. The affectation of generosity at someone else's expense is, at best, hypocrisy. At worst, it's theft. Generosity is what you do with your own resources."

     The policemen ordered the couple into a police car, and they drove them to the outskirts of town. Then they ordered them from the car and left them on the side of a desolate, two-lane country road.

     As the police car drove away, Ebenezer Christian heard the woman ask, "Ay, Jose! Que haceremos? Moriremos!" (Oh, Jose! What will we do? We'll die!)

     The man responded, "No se, Miriam, pero debimos tenir fe. De dentro de todos los crisises, Dios es nuestro Escudo y Consuelo. El socorrerenos." (I don't know, Miriam, but we must have faith. Throughout all crises, God is our Shield and Comfort. He will help us.)

     With a voice trembling as much from fear as from the cold, she said, "Para sobrevivir la noche, necesitaremos un milagro. Ay, mi pobrecita!" ("To survive the night, we'll need a miracle. Oh, my poor little one!")

      The young couple kneeled by the roadside and prayed.

     As they prayed, a light snow began to fall. Ebenezer Christian remembered the weather report that was on everyone's lips: to the delight of almost everyone in town—especially Joe Fenner, the popular weather forecaster on local television—Bedford Falls would enjoy a white Christmas this year. It was expected to snow at least six inches that night.

     "How will they survive?" Ebenezer Christian asked the spirit.

     The shade pointed to a small bridge and replied, "They'll seek shelter under that bridge you see there. Jose Santos will spend the next couple of hours pulling rocks from the creek and building a windbreak between their entrance and his wife Miriam. He'll rub her arms and legs to keep her warm. The labor with the rocks will keep him warm for awhile. After he has done all he can to save them, they both will feel warm and comfortable inside their little nest beneath the bridge."

     "So they'll be all right?"

     "No. Their feelings of warmth and comfort will be the first signs of hypothermia. Tomorrow morning, when children all over Bedford Falls are sitting wide-eyed beneath brightly lighted Christmas trees, finding their presents, and opening them, Jose and Miriam Santo will be frozen to death under the bridge. Their bodies will be found after the snow thaws."

     "No! No! I can't accept that! What kind of God would allow it to happen?"

     "The kind of God Who loves men enough to allow them the free will to love Him or reject Him. He could force people to behave as if they were moral and care for one another, but that wouldn't make them moral or loving. Men can not be loving or moral creatures unless they have a choice. Remember the parable of the man who was beaten and robbed on the way to Jericho?"

     "The one about the Good Samaritan?"

     "That's the one. In their need, Jose and Miriam Santo and their baby were forsaken by a charitable organization, a minister, pious church members and police officers who are sworn to protect and serve. They will freeze to death in the snow because not even one person will obey God's commandment to `Love thy neighbor.'"

     The spirit angrily waved his arm, and the scene vanished.

Ebenezer Christian and the Three Christmas Spirits, Chapter 10

     At this writing, Christmas is less than two weeks away. In 2001, (not, as I'd incorrectly remembered, 2002) a few weeks after Christmas, I wrote this novella as a reaction against the way Christmas has become a racket. Many of the worst offenders are professing Christians who have bought into the Christmas racket and are contributing to the world's problems by participating in that racket.

     We need to reconnect with the world, and we need to rethink Christmas.

     Over the coming days, I intend to post each of the fourteen chapters and addendum to Ebenezer Christian and the Three Christmas Spirits. The following is Chapter Ten.  For the Table of Contents to Ebenezer Christian and the Three Christmas Spirits, click HERE.

Chapter Ten

The First of Three Christmas Spirits

     We all need sleep because our bodies need rest, and because our brains need to sort out the experiences that we’d had during the day. Dreams are the results of that sorting-out process. This process works pretty much like a computer searching for the appropriate file for the data that is fed into it. When something really strange happens in a dream, it’s often because the mind temporarily has placed it into the wrong “file” and then has attempted once again to put it into the correct one.

     The reader may draw his on interpretations of the events taking place in the next few chapters of this small book. Though Ebenezer Christian may or may not have been dreaming, “dreaming” is probably as useful a term here as any.

     When the Christian family went to bed in their spacious home on Elm Street that Christmas Eve night, Ebenezer lay awake for more than an hour pondering the events of the day. There was no one thought that occupied his attention, nor even one thought at a time. The whole of his thoughts (if, indeed, they could have been called thoughts) was jumble of impressions and feelings that left him uneasy.

     Shortly after the grandfather's clock in the hallway chimed the half hour before midnight, Ebenezer Christian drifted off into a fitful sleep. Upon the first chimes of midnight, he awoke and sat up in bed.

     "Are you having trouble sleeping, Ebenezer Christian?" an otherworldly voice asked him.

     "Who are you? Where are you?"

     "My name does not matter, and I stand before you."

     Ebenezer Christian peered into the darkness and saw a wizened, diminutive form he was sure he recognized. "Cooper Grady! What are you doing in my house?"

     "I came to show you your future."

    "And I'm going to show you the door! Wait a minute! This can't be for real. Am I having a nightmare?"

     "There's one way to tell. Anytime you tell yourself that you're dreaming, that's when you start to wake up—that is, if it really is a dream." The spirit paused a moment. Neither it nor Ebenezer Christian spoke. Then the spirit broke the silence: "Have I gone away yet?"

     "No."

     "Neither have you. We must not be dreaming. Are you ready to take a look at your future?"

     "Not even the angels in heaven know the future. Only the Lord knows what the future holds."

     "What if I told you that this one's a no-brainer?"

     "What do you mean?"

     "I mean, what if I told you that I won't show you anything that you don't already know?"

     "Then, I'd say you were wasting your time and mine. Let me go back to sleep, and you can go back to where you came from."

     "Very well, if you don’t want to leave your comfortable bed, I can show you your future from here." With that, the spirit turned and waved its hand as though sweeping away a portion of the air in front of them. In the space where the spirit had waved, Ebenezer Christian saw himself as an elderly man lying in a hospital bed.

     “I suppose that’s me on my deathbed?”

     “Correct grammar would be: ‘I suppose that is I on my deathbed,’ but you are correct about what you’re watching.”

     “I don’t intend to sound cavalier about my own death, but isn’t all this obvious? I know I’m going to die someday, and I expect and hope that I’ll live to a ripe old age and die in a nice, clean hospital bed with my family around me. So, what is all this supposed to tell me?”

     “Nothing can be as deceptive as the obvious. Don’t overlook the obvious. Keep watching-and listen to what you say from your bed.”

     Ebenezer Christian listened for as long as his patience held out-perhaps fifteen minutes-and blurted, “Okay! I’m an ordinary guy with an ordinary family. I live to the age of 79 and die an ordinary death. What is all this supposed to show me?”

     “A moment ago, you told your wife and children that you wish that you’d spent more time with your family, especially while your children were in their teens and early college years. Your wife then expressed the same regret.”

     “But isn’t that what everybody says on his deathbed?”

     “Yes, it is. Nobody on his deathbed ever has said that he wished he’d spent more time at the office or even in church-related activities (except maybe worship services). Nobody on his deathbed ever has said he wished he’d spent more time away from his family.”

     That remark was not in any way comparable to the light that Saul saw on the road to Damascus. It was more of a morsel for thought. Ebenezer Christian had a small counter-argument: “Surely, you’re not saying that we should avoid church activities. Isn’t our highest duty to God?”

     “Yes, it is; and, under God, your service to the family is a more lofty responsibility than your service to the church.” Ebenezer Christian was stunned at such heretical-sounding a doctrine as this. The spirit continued, “Most church work is just busy work, designed to make church members feel as if they’re serving God, regardless of whether they really are. I would remind you that Saint Paul admonished Timothy, ‘If a person does not care for his own, especially his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.’”

     “Now, don’t tell me that I haven’t been caring for my own household!” Ebenezer Christian had become so excited in his response that he had to look at Mary Martha Christian to be sure he hadn’t awakened her. She was still asleep. He rattled off all the extra work he had done and enumerated money he had given to the church and things he’d bought his family that had been the fruits of his labor.

     “Yes, because of your extra work and overtime, you’ve been able to contribute about twice as much to the church than you ordinarily would have. You’ve gone above and beyond your tithe. I still accuse you of withholding from God what is his due.”

     “What!”

     “The cattle on a thousand hills are His. The precious metals and gemstones within a thousand hills also are His. Do you really think that God is so hard up for money that you must work extra jobs and overtime to support Him? If He did need money, why should he apply to you for it?

     “God’s commandment to tithe isn’t because He needs the money. We must tithe because it’s to our own spiritual benefit to do this. It’s one of the many ways we can follow the commandment to make of ourselves a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable to God.

     “That’s the sacrifice God wants from you. There’s only one thing you can give Him that isn’t already His: your love: yourself—and that’s the one thing you’ve denied Him. You’ve given your local church organization your service and your money, but you have withheld yourself from God as the one sacrifice He requires.”

     “That’s harsh!” Ebenezer Christian protested, refusing to accept the shade’s judgment.

     “It gets harsher,” the spirit replied. He waved his arm in such a sweeping gesture that it erased every image from the room. Upon his invitation, Ebenezer Christian stepped from the bed; then the bed itself vanished.

     “Where are we,” asked Ebenezer Christian, “and why is all this trash here?” Indeed, they stood on a mountain of tightly compacted refuse.

     “This is the graveyard of most of the Christmas presents you’ve bought your friends and family members. A moment ago, you saw yourself on your deathbed, regretting that you didn’t spend enough time with your family and friends. And why didn’t you? You were too busy making money to buy extra cars, a larger house, and expensive gifts with which to shower your family and friends.

     “Where did they all go: all those cars and all those other embellishments? Most of them are crushed, broken and compacted into cubes beneath our feet. Even your house was torn down, and the rubble was dumped onto a landfill.

     “You desire more than you should have. Because of your inordinate desire, you have inordinate ambition. To satisfy that ambition, you keep away from your family when you should be at home with them; and, by demanding more and more things, you ravage the environment the Lord has created and entrusted unto you for wise stewardship.

     “Just telling you to reduce your desires is not enough now. You’ve become so addicted to materialism that you don’t know how.”

     Ebenezer Christian still did not fully accept the shade’s lecture, but he didn’t want to be left out of the conversation. “How does a person do that?” he asked, as though the person in question were not himself.

    “You can value things by their nature and practical function rather than by their embellishments. Silk, for example, is nothing more than the unraveled cocoon of a worm that feeds on mulberry leaves; and cotton is the untangled fiber of a cotton plant that has gone to seed. Either may be made into a shirt, the function of which is to shade us from the sun or help to warm us on cool days. There is no practical reason for buying a silk shirt rather than a cotton shirt, or one with a famous logo on it rather than one without a logo. Only vain imaginings can lead people to be deceived by these needless embellishments.”

     “A shirt is only a small thing,” Ebenezer Christian excused.

     “Little things add up, but since you brought it up, does your family need one car for each family member?” Before Ebenezer Christian could answer, the shade asked, “Does your family need even one car for the whole family?”

     “Of course we do!” Ebenezer Christian exclaimed with the confidence of a man who is about to get the better of an accuser who thus far has been successfully badgering him. “It’s much faster and more convenient than taking a bus or walking. Or do you have something against saving time?”

     “Saving time for the purpose of filling your hours with more busy work?” the spirit asked rhetorically. “Well, I won’t go into that-not now, at any rate. Are you quite sure that driving saves time?”

     “Of course! How can I not be sure if I’m saving time?”

     “You’re counting your time in terms of how long it takes to get from point A to point B. If you counted your time the way a businessman counts his expenses, you may be surprised to learn that it takes less time to take a bus, or even to walk, than it takes to drive to work.”

     “How’s that?”

     “A businessman would count everything that goes into the enterprise he’s examining. It takes you a certain number of hours to earn the money to pay for the car, the insurance, gas, oil, other fluids, car wash, garage, and the property taxes on the car and garage. You probably have other car-related expenses, but we’ll stop there. Once you’ve estimated the hours you worked to buy and maintain the car, you divide that figure by the number of miles you’ve driven. Add to it the time you spend finding a parking space and the time you spend going from point A to point B. Only then will you know whether it saves you time to walk, take a bus or drive. For most people, a car is no more than an embellishment; it’s not even a luxury.

     While Ebenezer Christian was absorbing this thought, the spirit eyed him in silence. After a moment, the shade interrupted his thoughts to remark, “Oh, by the way: you’re standing on your BMW.”

     Ebenezer Christian looked beneath his feet and saw a block of compacted steel. He looked up again and found himself standing in the room of a college dormitory. Sitting at a desk, with her back to them, was a young woman weeping over her books.

     "Who is she?" Ebenezer Christian asked.

     "Her name is Teng Hui-mei," the shade replied. Her father is originally from the Henan Province of China, but her family now lives in Taiwan. She's a classmate of your daughter Buffy. In fact, this lady’s room is next to your daughter’s”

     "Why is she crying?"

     "She's under tremendous pressure. Due to a lack of resources, she began college several years later than most students. Now, almost ten years after her graduation from college in Taiwan, she’s a thirty-five year old graduate student. Most students from Taiwan first become undergraduates, partly to accustom themselves to the language. Her age and lack of resources led her to go directly into graduate school. Now she's suffering for it. Most weeknights, she gets barely five hours of sleep because she studies all the time."

     "What will become of her?"

     "I can tell you only what I'm allowed to know myself. If she succeeds and is graduated from this school, she'll become a teaching missionary in the Henan Province. Officially, she'll be no more than a teacher, since Christian missionaries aren't allowed. She is to establish a cell church in that province. After a few years, the officials will raid the church, arrest the members and scatter them throughout Henan Province and beyond. As a result, the seeds of the Gospel will be scattered all over the area."

     "My daughter Buffy—“

     "Your daughter Buffy will never become a missionary to China. She'll marry a minister and do fine work here in the United States."

     "But she always said she felt a burden to minister to the Chinese."

     "And that's the Lord's will for her life. The lady you see before you is the Chinese to whom she must minister. There's no feeling of nobility in helping a classmate with her homework, but the need is real nonetheless. Oh, your daughter isn't exactly wasting her free time. She is active in a Christian organization, and it gives her a feeling of satisfaction that she's doing `the Lord's work,' so to speak. But filling the needs of others is far more important than giving herself a feeling of satisfaction while she's having fun.

     "Your daughter is throwing away the only chance she'll ever have to minister to the Chinese and—however indirectly—spread the Gospel in China."

     "Is it possible that—what did you say her name is? Teng Hui-mei? "

     "Yes, that's her name."

     "Is it possible that she'll flunk out of graduate school?"

     "Yes, it is."

     "What will happen to her ministry then?"

     "If she flunks out of graduate school, the good work I've described will never happen. Each of us influences others in ways that we can never know."

     "Will she flunk?"

     "I'm not allowed to know that," the shade replied in the voice of a middle-aged man.

The shade no longer had the face and bearing of Cooper Grady. He now resembled the member of the group of fanatics called Patriot’s Dream.