Jadeinne Sparrow: Soaring High

PRE-READING
Before you read the selection, I want you to ponder on the following questions:

1. What is the story about?
2. What element of a narrative is being emphasized in the story?
3. What part of the story is realistic? Fantastic? Sci-fi?
4. Who are the characters in the story? Describe each character based on the way they think, speak, and act.
5. How old do you think is the main character?
6. Do you think the main character has flaws in the story? What is it? How did she show it? How did it contribute to the effectiveness of her role in the story?
7. What conflict can you find in the story? How did the main character overcome this conflict?
8. What line in the story tells that the main character has been saved?
9. How did the story end?
10. What literary approach is observed in the story? Why?
11. Who are the intended audiences of the story?
12. What message does the author want us to know about salvation?
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THE discovery of our new home was overwhelming. I have been existing for twenty seven years, twelve months, and twenty five days already, but I was about to experience how it would feel to be reaped by the One Who planted me. Yes, salvation was about to come, and I was so excited to see how God would look like. Would I really say He created me in His image?
My head was tilted upward on a vast spaceship, watching the entrance of each family. I smiled, thinking how lucky our family was to have survived life on Earth.
Earth was no longer what it used to be during the time of our parents, so they said. They used to tell me that when they were young, there were lots of trees in the forest, the rivers were so clean you could even see the stones on its surface, and there are many animals other than rats and roaches. In my time, Earth was seemingly dusty and invaded by unstoppable wave of nature’s curses. It may be because of never ending development of technological gadgets, polluting factories and the like, and now this generation suffers for these abuses.
Good thing God has created His latest technology that would take all His chosen ones to the brand new Earth He was telling in the Bible. The Lord has brought on His promise and I claim it.
“Telly,” I heard a voice call. It was my mom’s. “Telly, come, let’s get inside.”
So I walked inside the ship and searched for the room where our family was assigned to stay. As I walked, I had a closer look at the insides of the ship. Unlike the ships I have usually seen on TV, the one we rode had golden floors and crystal balusters. The walls were shining like jewelries. Almost all parts of it were made of the finest of Earth’s elements and minerals. We were only on the process of abduction, yet God gave us an idea about how life on the new Earth would become.
When we entered the room, I hurried to my bed and gave thanks to God. I guessed my family did the same.
After we prayed, we were surprised by a call from a speaker in the corner of our room.
“Attention. We are now boarding on planet Laria. Attention. We are now boarding on planet Laria.”
Laria. So that’s the name of our new home. God was right. The former things would pass away. I just never knew that even the name of the Earth…
So my family and I walked until we reached the outside world again. We were met by the freshness of the air. It smelled like a newly-grown forest. When I opened my eyes, I saw myself in a field layered with green grass.
“Oh, this is it! Heaven!” I thought excitedly. I ran around like a child, trying to figure out where God was… But I saw no trace of Him anywhere. Not even a line of people claiming their rewards.
I went to my mom.
“Mom,” I said, “Have you ever wondered the Lord is? Won’t we be judged as we enter heaven?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know, maybe we have done what He willed so He saved us from judgment already. I don’t know.”
After she spoke, an image of people who were being pushed to another spaceship caught our attention. Unlike the one we rode before, that ship was bathing in rust.
“That might be on board to hell, don’t you think, mom?” I asked. She didn’t answer, though I could see questions in her eyes just as I had.
After the last person has been placed in the ship, a tall, young man took his place on a crystal clear podium near the ships and gathered all people before him. The man looked like a prince in his long hair and attractive built. Could that be…
“Greetings, my people,” he said aloud. “Today, you are living in a planet called Laria. This is the planet I and my colleagues have discovered two years ago. The planet was named after me, Gregor Laria.”
The people clapped their hands, so did I, although I was still questioning. Gregor Laria might be the head scientist during that time…
“As you can see, we are disposing people. Those people are exiles to Earth…”
The last words silenced each and every one of us. I just wondered: if God would abduct us to be in heaven, why would He exile His people back to Earth?
“Those are the people who believe in their God. We are now in Laria. This is our planet. From now on, there will be no God. From now on, I will be your god, and those who would not dare worship me will be exiled just like those people, in a world where there is no food and no water… in a world where the only companion of humans… is death!”
And he left us with a bark of evil laughter. Many people who were there trembled after hearing those words. They were all afraid that they talked with each other about worshiping that man. I never knew that not all of us would remain loyal to our God. In Laria, most people turned their eyes on that man only to avoid the face of death.
But I…

WE were not called Earthlings anymore, but Larians. We were taken to a huge, golden building by two men wearing black suits, telling us that we would be living there. My mother and I went to our room and shut the door. Disappointedly, I dropped myself on one of the beds and looked out in the window.
“Don’t worry, Telly,” said my mom, “As long as you remain loyal to God… He will never leave you… nor forsake you. Just like what happened to Joshua… Although he was taken to Babylon, he worshiped no other gods than his God… our God, so God gave him favor.”
She smiled.
Mom was right. I might be in another world, but my heart would be left on Earth forever… on Earth with God.
But after I heard her words, a loud siren echoed inside our room. It sounded as if we were caught shoplifting. Suddenly, a group of policemen went inside our room. They took my mother in the arms and dragged her out.
“Mom!” I cried, as I saw my mother suddenly moved far away from me.
“Telly!” she cried back. I ran after them, trying to win back my mother at all costs.
“Mom!” and my tears went out. “Mom, don’t leave me!”
“Go back to your room, Telly!” she cried again, her voice hoarse. “It is dangerous out here!”
“But mom—”
“Go back! Remember what I said, Telly! God will never leave you—”
And right before my eyes I saw how blood sprayed out of her temple by the pulling of the policeman’s trigger.
That stopped me from running. For a moment, I was just there, standing, watching those men as they drag my mother to the rusty spaceship like a sack of potatoes. The tears streamed down my eyes but I could not cry hard. I was freezing.
When my awareness went back, I looked around and all eyes were on me as if I did something criminal… maybe in Laria… believing in God was a crime. I faced about and walked to my room without a sound.

THAT night, I was ordered by that scientist to come into his office… that scientist who claimed that there would be no God anymore.
“You are Telly,” he recognized. But I did not answer. “I have heard the news that you mother died… I am… grieved.”
I only looked at him, but I tried hard not to give him any sign of anger. Vengeance, after all, is not mine.
“But that’s the cost of refusing to worship me. See that? She was killed, instead of being exiled to Earth.”
He stood, then said, “So if I were you, I would stop worshiping that God so that the same fate will not happen to me.” His eyes darted my way. “You don’t wanna die yet, do you?”
I took a deep breath and released it silently.
“With all due respect, sir,” I answered, “I choose to endure death rather than to suffer the cost of worshiping a human being. My God is living, sir.”
A loud breaking of a glass almost made me jerk from where I stood.
“Living? Huh! Tell me, if He is ever living, why couldn’t He save you from my hands? Actually, I can even kill you now and I doubt if He comes to your aid.”
I stood still. Arguing with that man would lead me nowhere. He continued.
“Young lady, I am giving you a chance to live in this planet. If you turn your back on your God and worship me, I will let you govern half of Laria, and you can even have all you want without pay.”
“I am sorry sir, but I can’t accept that. I bow to only one Authority and I’m afraid it isn’t you.”
After saying that, his eyes darkened against mine but I met it without any attempt to equal what he felt.

THE next thing I know was that, I was boarding on a rusty spaceship already, on my way back to Earth. In his anger, the scientists called his guards to exile me on the planet, saying he did not need a trash like me in his world. He even ordered to have me killed.
That would be a glorious death then: to die with loyalty to God in my heart. However, it was He Himself who willed not to let me die like that.
We landed on Earth. When they sent me out, I saw almost nothing but pure dust. No wonder human beings could hardly survive even a day in that place. The Earth was desolate. It was devoid of almost all source of living. I couldn’t even see a tree.
But before the spaceship flew back to Laria, one of the guards, Jay, went to me and gave me goggles. I did not ask about my death anymore. It was he who was caused to speak about it.
“I won’t allow myself to kill, Telly,” he said, “Just go. I believe you can still find humans on Earth. Not all of it is covered with dust, although it will soon be.”
My eyes surveyed him, questioning.
“Although I am working under Dr. Laria, I am not fully pledged to worship him. That’s insane!”
I nodded. Then we heard his colleagues yelling his name, asking if he had already killed me. When he yelled back in affirmative, they stopped.
“I can only pray that you find your safety wherever you go,” his last words before he departed.
That was the start of the days when I wandered on Earth. Using Jay’s goggles, I was able to see through the dusts. There were still trees and buildings, but those seemed abandoned. I could not find any human being on Earth except a mount of bodies that lay lifeless on the ground. The sight of those things made me shiver.
It’s as if I was the very first exile of planet Laria. When I found out I was alone, I started to feel chills on my spine. Earth was like hell, and I was like the only one there. Just then, I heard the voice of my mom, saying…
“Do not worry, Telly… as long as you remain loyal to God… He will never leave you… nor forsake you…”
I nodded to myself and started walking again. For three days, the only things I encountered were abandoned buildings and wilted plants, dried trees, and decayed humans and animals. There were no foods anymore, nor water, however hard I tried searching for it.

WHILE I was walking, one of my feet bumped on something and I fell. I looked at it… It was a Bible! I picked the Bible up and saw that it was old—aged by the dusts and calamities… but still useful. So I stopped walking and opened it…
God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but will have everlasting life…-John 3:16
As I read that verse, I heard Something whispering to me.
“You are My champion … Do My will… Feed the hungry… Quench those who thirst…
Find the remnants of My people…”
I didn’t know if it was true or just a result of restlessness because I haven’t eaten for three days. But I stood and took the Bible with me and continued to walk to where my feet would take me.
That was the time I realized that I was not alone. While I was walking, I started to hear someone crying. I moved closer to where the sound was. It was a voice of an old man.
“Lord, Lord! I thought You would not forsake us. Why would You allow us to live in this desolate place?”
He was cursing, saying he’d had enough of having faith in God. He was about to give up. So I walked towards him. He was like a dried mud with skin devouring his thinned framework. I know he couldn’t see me because when I spoke to him, he was surprised.
“He has never forsaken us,” I said.
“Who… are you?” he asked.
“I am Telly. I am an exile.”
“Exile? You are from the new planet?”
I sat beside him.
“No, old man. No human being has come from the other planet. I come from Earth, lived shortly on planet Laria, and was exiled here.”
“And why did you allow yourself? Don’t you realize how lucky you are?!”
I looked at him whose eyes were closed because of the thickness of the dust. “It is God’s will.”
“God’s will? God has forsaken us, if you’re not blind, young lady. Look at the Earth! He said He will create a new Earth, but where is that new Earth? I am poor and abandoned! He did not even include me in His ship!”
“You mean the ship to the new planet?”
“Yes!”
“It’s good He didn’t. He chose you to live in His kingdom, and I believe it is just about to come,” I said excitedly.
“Are you stupid, young lady? You are still happy when you know you are at the pit of death! You do not realize that God has already closed His door on you like He did to me!”
“God is just preparing our home, old man… You see, God loves us all, that’s why He sent Jesus to die for us. All we have to do is believe in Jesus and we will never die.”
“What kind of stupidity is that? We are dying here! We have no food! No water! No shelter to live in! We will all be eaten by cockroaches! It’s hell!”
I nodded. “You know, old man, I wandered almost everywhere and have not seen anything but buildings and dead people. There are no living things on Earth until I found you. That is one thing to be thankful for.”
“You are thankful you see someone like me who suffers to death? Why can’t I just die now so that I will not feel this pain anymore?”
I smiled at his question.
“It is because God wants to save you. It is the time to strengthen your faith in Him— this time—when you are having a lot of trials… Old man, God only tests our hearts… our faithfulness. Nothing is impossible with God. The next day, it will all be over.”
But the old man kept on complaining and complaining so I just silenced. But I never left him. I sat beside him for another three days, still without something to eat and drink. I kept on hearing his complaints on the second day of my stay, while I was quietly reading a few verses on Matthew.
From time to time, I would hear the old man challenge God that if He is really God, He would… give all things material. I sighed. My eyes moved on each line on the Bible, and before the third day, the old man stopped complaining.
On the third day that I was reading the Bible, the old man surprised me.
“Look, young lady, the dusts are thinning!” he said. “Look, the dusts are thinning!”
Suddenly, his face became hopeful… and joyful that he jumped and jumped and danced, echoing a happy laughter out of hope.
I raised my head and indeed, he was right. The dusts were thinning and we could see. I took my goggles off. Then I looked at the old man and smiled.
That time, he was proclaiming that God has heard his cries, that God was really alive.
But that was only short lived. Three more days passed and again, he complained when we started wandering the Earth together searching for food.
“Maybe God is only showing us that there is no more life here on Earth,” he said, disappointed.
“Why worry, old man?”
“Why worry? Don’t you realize that we’re about to die? I can even eat the dusts but I doubt if I will live!”
“You have a point. We’re still on Earth, that’s why we worry. But God said, don’t worry because He’ll provide for us anyway. What’s the point in complaining?”
“You always claim that you believe in God when you cannot even respect me! Remember, long time before you were born, I was!”
I covered my face with both hands to keep my patience. “I know, and I am not disrespecting you, old man. I am only saying things clearly so that you would know.”
“Has God provided us anything for the past few days?”
“And what about our lives?” I asked, suddenly silencing the old man, “For a few days that we have eaten nothing, why are we still living today?”
“I… I don’t know… maybe to suffer on Earth because we are sinners.”
I looked at him. “You are right. We suffer because we have sinned. But when we accept Jesus in our heart, we will not suffer anymore.”
Another moment of silence. There I noticed that the old man was looking intently at me. Questions went back to my eyes, and I believe that’s what I also see in him.
“It looks like you never hunger for days. How long have you been here on Earth?”
“This is my eighth day since I was exiled.”
“Do you have any food with you? You really do not look hungry.”
“I have,” and I raised the Bible, because if that would be food as in food, I could not show anything.
“YOU ARE EATING PAGES FROM THAT BOOK?” he asked, surprised.
“No! My food is to follow God. That’s why I do not go hungry even though I haven’t eaten anything.”
“I see… if I believe in God the way you do, do you think I will not go hungry again?”
“Yes,” I answered, smiling.

FOUR days after that, I started to notice that the old man was always praying to God to make him believe in Him the way I did. A few days more, he would ask me to read verses of the Bible to him, and he started to smile and laugh often and stopped complaining about what we would eat. God was making my ministry fruitful. Little by little, I was starting to understand the reason He allowed me to go back to Earth. The man who was with me… was the reason.
I guess we have trodden half of the Earth and again, we were at a place where the dust was very thick. We would stop by a place to look for a mask for him and start wandering again. We were no longer searching for food, but for chances that there would still be people on Earth. Thank God we found them. They were at a small building which cannot be entered by dust. People there were have not known who God was, and like the old man when I first met him, those people were complaining about food and water.
We introduced God to them and the old man gave his testimonies on how he received salvation. We have been through a wide length of time before we could convince them, but finally, they believed in God.
We did not have any Bible to give so the people whom we have shared the gospel to went with us and listened to our Bible reading every evening. And then at night, before we all sleep, we would give thanks to God, sing praises, and hope for His salvation.
With the help of the old man, I was able to share the gospel to eleven people already. I thought of God as worthy to be praised. Although I was banished to Earth, I was starting to find heaven by searching for the remnants of His people and offering them the gift of salvation.

ONE morning, when I woke up, I did not see the old man anymore. I tried looking for him but I could not find him.
“Where could that old man be?” I asked myself, my forehead crumpled. “Old man? Old man?”
I walked, faster that time. Have I left him somewhere, or he didn’t want to go with me anymore? I never knew that time. But I felt like he was one of my children and I was having a problem not finding him. However, evening came and he was still not around. Even the new batch of people we have shared the gospel to did not find any trace of the old man. So I told them that we would walk all over the Earth searching for him and they agreed.
For three days we were walking, searching for him in the buildings, in the dried forests, in the mounts of dead bodies, everywhere. But we found no old man.
Until one day, I gave up searching for him.
“He could have died somewhere,” I said, disappointed.
“Are you losing hope, Telly? The Earth is getting small. We can still find him. He hasn’t gotten everywhere,” said one of my companions.
I sighed. They were right. Besides, losing hope is a waste of time.
We walked again, searching for him. And there he was, at the edge of the Earth, waiting for us. I smiled.
“I thought we have lost you, old man!” I said, happily.
He only smiled. Then walked to me and gave me a piece of seed.
“It is the only thing I have before the Earth was made desolate,” he told us. “I have been protecting this seed from then on. Now the Earth is getting well. There is only a little dust and we can see clearly. Maybe in time, waters will spring and plants will grow.”
“So what do we do?” I asked.
“Go, plant it. Let us see if it grows.”
“But how can we care for the plant when there is not enough water and sunlight?” asked the others.
“Just plant it and let us see if it grows.”
So I dug a small hole on the ground and planted the seed, without minding how it would be moistened or lighted.
After I have covered the seed with earth, I started uttering a prayer.
“Dear God, we have found a seed and planted it on the ground. This seed took years of protection, and now we planted it to see if it will provide for us. Lord, You know how we have withstood days without eating and drinking. We spent hours doing Your will by sharing the gospel to the people. Lord, I am praying that you water this plant with Your grace so that it will grow. You know that the Earth was made desolate by the rise of technology, but I believe that when given a chance, this seed will grow and prosper, just like what you did to the remnants of Your people today. Lord, we commit this plant to You, please take good care of it and give it a chance to live. In Jesus’ name, amen.”
And my companions started gathering around the plant, praying for it to grow.
We were all praying hard, tears were falling down our eyes. And suddenly… it was only the sound of my weeping which I heard. I wiped away my tears, only to see myself all alone again.
But what surprised me was that, aside from my own tears, what dripped on the earth was blood… pure blood! And so I looked up and was amazed at the sight of a Man whose face covered a multitude of sins. His hand was stretched out, and out of the wound of His hand came blood and water. His eyes were looking at me as if I was a child who was long lost and was found again. And I… I was in tears, because at that point, I was running out of words, or praises…
And as I watched blood come out of His hand, I heard a still, small Voice, telling me, “You are My champion… You have done My will… Now receive your reward…”
His hand reached out to me and I held on to it until I was able to stand. And I heard that Voice again.
“Walk,” He said, “Meet me at the ends of the Earth, and you will receive that reward.” So I went straight, half-walking, half-running. I could not wait to see what would happen next.
There I noticed that time was not passing. There was no evening anymore. I made my movement fast. He might just be a dream, but I never wanna lose that Dream anymore.
Again, I saw Him, arms open wide. He was smiling that sweet smile and was waiting for me patiently. When I reached Him, I flung into His arms and cried. I felt His hand touching my hair lightly.
“Look,” He said, showing something behind me. And when I looked, I saw plants and trees in full bloom, and the old man and my other companions in white. On the other side, I saw my mom, smiling at me, waving her hand. I looked up and He was still there. He’d never leave anymore, I guess.
“You have kept your faith till the end,” He said, “Now for your one last mission… Come with Me to Laria, and help Me take those who have kept their faith.”
I nodded excitedly.
In an instant, I saw myself in a white armor: With helmet, breastplate, belt, sandals, shield, sword… and wings! And I saw many of us clothed the same—heading on to the final battle.
And there He was, robed with flowing blood, seated on a snow-white horse. I smiled, seeing that the hour of true salvation has already arrived.
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