Imagine!™

Just then an angel interrupted, “What’s God doing now?” Jesus returned his focus to Eden and immediately understood. He saw that his Father and the man were standing together with their backs to the river. One of every animal was lined up and seemed to parade past the duo. God would stretch out his hand indicating the animal. The man would say something; then the next animal would come up for inspection. “They’re inspecting all the animals. Listen!” Jesus hushed the curious host. All became silent and strained to hear. “And what about this one, Adam?” The man responded, “Elephant.” “Good,” God affirmed, nodding and motioning for the elephant to move on and the small, slender creature with lots of tiny legs to come before them. “And this next one?” “How about ‘centipede’?” Adam suggested. “Fine,” God said. The routine repeated itself time and again before any of the angels could find an astonished voice. It was Gabriel who spoke first. “God is having the ma...

“Wow!” Allen exclaimed. “Uh, Jesus? What’s God doing now?” Distracted for only a moment, Jesus glanced around and noticed that his Father was no longer standing beside him. He looked over the railing toward the Earth and then replied, “Oh, that’s right. It’s the next step in the whole plan. He’s planting a garden.” “He’s what!” Michael asked dumbfounded. A young angel nearby posed the next anticipated question, “Why’s he doing that?” Jesus explained, “Just something he wanted to do personally; kind of like I wanted to design all the animals and man even though my father could’ve completed that task in a split millisecond.” Lucifer’s scoffing voice could be heard over the crowd, “What’s the point of that? Rather grandiose I’d say.” Ignoring the mocker, Jesus continued thoughtfully, “He’s making a perfect paradise for man on the Earth. Toward the East over that way,” he stated pointing. “The garden is named Eden. It contains every type of plant: flowers, shrubs,...

Next God turned to his Son and spoke so all could again hear his proclamation, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the Earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” At these words, the anticipatory stillness was so silent that Gabriel thought he once again could hear the flutter of birds’ wings from the sky above the Earth below. He immediately handed the smaller second book to Jesus who relinquished it to his Father. God stirred many in the crowd to utter amazement with his next words. He turned to the separated but close-knit group congregated in the back and inquired, “Lucifer?” “Yes…your Majesty?” the startled angel queried apprehensively. God continued, “Would you mind going down to the Earth and collecting a handful of dirt and then bringing it back up here to me?” “Me? Now?” Lucifer responded incredulously. “If you please,” God ...

It was true; everyone had gathered at the Earth Overlook. All eyes followed the trio as they approached the railing. “Make way! Make way for the Majestic Duo!” Though unnecessary, Gabriel’s voice aided in clearing the path to the prime location at the railing. “Gabe, calm down,” Jesus affectionately chastened the exuberant angel. “We’ve already done this five times before.” “I know,” the angel apologized. “I can’t help it. This day is going to be so incredible. I can’t keep it inside me any longer.” He let out what would someday be characterized as a barbaric yawp, “Yeee Haaw!” Everyone laughed. Well, perhaps not quite everyone. The Father was stoic if not also a little understanding of the enthusiastic angel who had helped his son plan this final day of creation. Then, as always, there was that small group surrounding Lucifer and positioned well away from the center of attention. They did an extremely poor job of acting disinterested in the events about to occur;...

After that, Jesus secluded himself to work on the most daunting task to this point in creation. He was designing all the different land animals. He enlisted Gabriel’s aid in this part of the plan, because of the latter’s sharp mind. The angel made observations and suggestions as he perused the stack of drawings that had once occupied that corner table. The purple cloth had long since been removed, the papers moved to the larger work table, and the size of the pile had nearly tripled. Gabriel thought Jesus should make large groups of animals with similar characteristics and then smaller groups within those large groups. They agreed again to let man do all the naming of the specific animals when “the time was right” someday. The drawings were the fun part of the job; deciding on the traits of the individual creatures was more tedious. Throughout all the designing, Jesus never for a moment lost sight of his goal: to make a world with so much variety that man would be absolutely thri...

As Day 5 dawned, the Earth Overlook was crowded with everyone pushing forward vying for the highly-coveted spots by the rail. Only Lucifer and his group held back reservedly, a little distanced from the throng. “Just you wait, Son of God,” Lucifer muttered to himself under his breath. “Our day will come; you’ll see.” “What’s Jesus going to do now?” asked one of Lucifer’s group. “I don’t know; and I don’t care!” the devil-to-be spat venomously. “Then why did we even bother to come?” questioned the friend. “It’s expected. We must bide out time. Our day will come,” Lucifer reiterated his previous thought. Meanwhile the day’s events were getting underway. God looked to Jesus inquiringly. Jesus smiled. A table had been placed strategically to hold the drawings upon which Jesus had been working for the past several days. These pages had been stacked in several neat piles in front of him. Jesus handed a stack to his Father. God then turned to the audience and announce...

The next day found Jesus in his drawing room reviewing the myriad sketches and lists on which he had been working for some time. His Father appeared in the half-open doorway. “May I come in?” God asked. “Of course, Father, I was just about to come and get you to find out if you had a few minutes to look over my latest work,” Jesus replied. “Be happy to, Son; what exactly do you have in store for Day 5?” God inquired. “I’ve been working on lots of drawings of creatures to swim in the oceans and fly through the sky. I call it ‘Fish and Fowl Day’ with the fish being the ocean-swimmers and fowl or birds being the sky-flyers,” Jesus explained. “There will be other swimmers besides fish; some of these will be made along with the fish, and some will not be created until the first half of Day 6. There will also be additional flyers besides the birds; they, too, will wait until the sixth day. Then I’ve even thought how neat it would be if some of the birds didn’t ever fly at al...