There it is. Everyday, before my eyes. Following me everywhere. Like my shadow. A quiet but eager witness. My companion. It is there since I was a child. As far as I could remember, it was always there. When I was young, I used to play around it. It was everywhere in my little world. Everywhere I went, it was there. I used to tell others about it, but I realized nobody else could see it. Only I could see. How can it be? I often wondered. How can they not see it? It’s as plain as daylight. A golden thread hanging from beyond the sky.
In all my days, it has been at the center of my cosmos. Its mystery, has kept me enchanted many nights, and its beauty, converging before the rising sun, is my great delight. Yet there is something amiss. For there is an aura of inexplicable splendor that surrounds it. It fills me with absolute fear when I get closer, around it. I can not explain it in words because there are no words to describe it. It’s as if I know that with just one touch, my whole world will be swept away. In all these years, I have never touched it.
I know it’s strange, but it is the truth. It is strange because it is the truth. For all these years, I’ve been right here. Going to places, talking to people day in and day out. Every day is another circle. A circle around the center which I dare not touch. It is easy. It does not require much enterprise. My feet has learned the way. Every step and turn, engraved in the eternal day. That is where I have been all these years. This is my life, my night and day.
I’ve been here for many years now. In these years of peace, I’ve marked the safe pieces. The places in which I’m at ease. I avoid the bad places, places torn in deceit. Away from golden cord, far from the abyss of darkness, in this ring of gray, I’m perfectly me. But something tells me that this will not last. At the midnight, shadows conspire. Something is not right. In my soul I feel the whole globe on a tipping point. A storm is coming.
The darkness moves before my eyes. Blinding me. My eyes can’t see the golden thread, the source of my life. The shadows dance around me, as if I was a campfire. Dark clouds cover the horizon as the blood red sun sets on the other side. Thunder and lightning! Cold winds blow past my face as I stand stricken by terror. Standing apprehended inside my safe haven, my circle betrays me. A storm has risen right before my eyes and I did not see it.
I fight the shadows but they evade my blows, I try to stand my ground but the wind pushes me. I am weighed down by the world that I made. Being crushed by the dual fists of fight and fatigue. As I loose my strength, I fall on my knees. Looking at heavens in a plea of help. As I try to see through the darkness that surrounds me, I see a glimmer. A feint golden sparkle. The heavens have heard my plea as I am reminded of the thread that has sewn my life.
Just a glimpse is enough to revitalize every organ in my body. My soul is elated to a degree heavenly. My aim is set and I launch myself towards it. The gods of the storm try to overpower me, but they are dead. The dead have no power among the living. The thread gives me life as I run towards it. Pushing away the darkness that surround me, I hungrily step towards the light. I am there and for a moment, time stands still.
The storm is stricken immobile, like a murderer caught red handed. I see around me and the whole world has stopped. A gentle voice calls my name. It tells me a story. It tells me that a boy fell into a well. So, the villagers lowered a rope for him to climb out of the well. But he did not. I asked, Why? The voice tells me that the boy did not knew that he had fell inside a well. He also did not know how much his parents were missing him. So the boy continued to live inside the well.
How can that be? How can he not know he had fell inside a well? The voice tells me, I am asking the same question. Look around you! Are you not in a well? Behold, even before your birth, I have lowered a rope for you to climb. For so many years you have seen it and you still haven’t understood my love for you. Look, the thread that binds my heart with yours is before you. Take hold of it and live! I hear a thunder, and look back towards the storm.
My life flashes before my eyes. I see my childhood. I see all the events that led up to this point. I see the darkness that was before me. I see beyond. Beyond the darkness I see a great and mighty hand. I see maneuvers that shaped me, pointing towards the thread of life. It all becomes crystal clear. I turn towards the golden thread and do not look back. I take hold of it.
On that fateful day something wonderful happened. A lost son found his daddy. A loving father found his lost son. The gap between two worlds was bridged. The heart of the son was knit together with the heart of the father. My heart was knit with God’s. Christ was the thread.