His Love In Time: Volume I

LAST NIGHT I WAS UP ALL-NIGHT THINKING ABOUT her. I am troubled by the woman that I saw in the garden, she looks identical to Lynn. No matter how much I try, I cannot stop thinking about her. It is like God is teasing me with a gift of something, or someone, that I could have once I finish my mission. After seeing her, I am destined to pay closer attention to Adam and Eve. After all, I know what happens. The following month, after the initial encounter, it was quiet, calm, and, at first, awkward.

I try to avoid any conversation between either of them, for as much as I could. Adam usually found me by the watering hole, bathing. He always ask me questions. I do my best to answer in a way that does not give anything away. He also makes sure that I do not go anywhere near his new wife.

Especially after his first wife, who could blame him.

No one ever asks about Lilith – no one questioned her whereabouts. She isn’t even mentioned, much, in the bible. I can only imagine what the world would be like if God didn’t banish her from the garden. She hadn’t even eaten from the tree, and she was already evil, and good at it.

In Limbo City, during my time, people avoided her. Whenever she walked into the Bar and Grill, everyone got quiet. If anyone crossed her path, she had a demon on them like white on rice. I can remember one time, she sent a hellhound after me, just for getting a soda before she did.

I wanted very much to just take out my Sword of the Spirit and end her right there. But my luck, she would heal from that and be even more angry with me. There was also something about her that I was drawn to. I cannot put my finger on it.

I can see Eve walking in the garden, minding her own business. She does not turn when I landed in the grassy field behind her, just kept looking at the bunnies and otters playing. She shows no sign of being scared of anything.

“Hey, Eve,” I say with a cheerful greeting.

She turns her head towards me, slightly, but her eyes were focused on the otters swimming. She gives me a small smile, then turned back away from me.

I assume that she does not want anything to do with me. So, I flap my wings and fly away. I try to keep my distance though. I was close enough just in case Lucifer decided to show. The bible never mentioned as to when he would come. But I figure, at this point, I would no longer pay her any attention. Especially since she is choosing to ignore me.

I know that I made a mistake in giving her that hug. I couldn’t help it, she looks so identical to her. Despite everything going on, I know that God would not allow my confusion to go on much longer. I try to convince myself that it is just a coincidence.

Michael, at least, was pleased with me. He would fly down from heaven, and enjoy my company from time to time. He got more confident, allowing Adam and Eve seeing his wings, regardless of the rule about witnessing the divinity.

I am forgetting I am on earth. Most of the time the days just slip by me, without much thought. God had told me to keep a watchful eye on them, but as far as I could tell, nothing was changing. They did the same thing every day. Adam wakes up, goes for a walk, praises God. Eve does the same thing, too. They pick fruit and nuts, together. They play with the animals. There are moments when they are more intimate, and I go elsewhere. It is usually boring, here. That was until Gabriel paid me a visit. I was sitting on my balcony one rainy morning, Gabriel appeared next to me.

“Hello, Jacob,” says Gabriel.

I wanted to look up at him, but I was angry with him for giving me the cold shoulder.

“Gabriel,” I said in a downgrading tone.

“I come to deliver a message to you, Jacob. As you know, Adam and Eve are not allowed to eat from the tree of good and evil.”

“I know, Gabriel.”

“Are you keeping a close eye on them?”

“Of course, I am,” I say, with a hint of annoyance in my tone.

His look changes from a concerned brother to the bully no one likes. “Is that any way to talk to me?”

“Why do you care?”

“Excuse me?!”

I stand up quickly and got nose to nose with Gabriel. I am tired of him pushing me around. I am getting very impatient with all the questions, too.

“Is that what you want me to tell Father?”

“No. I’m just tired of all the questions from you. I don’t want to have to explain myself to you or anyone.”

“Do not forget who you are talking to!”

He places his hands on my clothes. He grips around my shirt, squeezing tightly. His fists ball up – skin stretched over his knuckles – lifting me up off the ground.

“Do you want to dance?” I taunt him.

He yells and throws me out of my treehouse. As I am falling, back first, to the ground. I am watching him leap over the balcony rails downward. His feet meet my chest, and he drills me deep into the ground. Creating a loud thud.

He steps off of me, allowing me to get up. I adjust my clothes and look at him, with an evil glare. I assume a fighting stance. I bring my hand up and curl it slowly, inviting him to attack me first.

He accepts the invitation and swings at me. Fist and feet are striking from every angle. I press his attacks, and he counters each move. We are fighting like a Kung Fu movie. I quench my fist, teeth squeeze together, as I lunge at him. Gabriel attacks me, and it is nothing like I have seen before. His feet and fists are all over the place, I can not keep up. Every block I provide, Gabriel hits me three more times.

I fall to my knees, coughing up blood.

Gabriel smiles at me leans over and says, “Some guardian angel.”

My hands, ball up, and I force myself up. This time our fists are flying in unison. The speed of our fists are going back and forth like the most skilled warriors. I want to hurt him bad, best friend or not. I finally land a blow to his head, causing him to stumble back. Without letting him catch his balance, I jump high up, wings open, and I place my knee carefully into his chest, forcing him to the ground.

I stand up and step away, allowing him to get up. He rolls over, in pain, but manages to get himself up. “You fight like Michael.”

“He trained me.”

“When? I’m older than you.”

I stare at him, brushing the dust off my clothes, expecting him to continue to fight me. But he does not. His gaze on mine like he is trying to figure me out. I continue to stare back. As of right now, I cannot trust him.

“Children,” God says, shimmering in.

“Father,” Gabriel says and bows his head.

I say nothing, pretending to stare at him, but I was keeping my eyes gazed at God. It bothers me that Gabriel would treat me like this.

“Jacob?” God says.

“Yes?” I respond, turning my head slowly towards Him.

“So, do you know why I sent Gabriel yet?” He asks.

Gabriel looks up at the, now, broken railing on the balcony.

“Or are you two done playing around?”

“He attacked me!” I defend myself.

“SILENCE!” He shouted. “I sent him for a reason.”

“I’m sorry,” I say. “I do not think that it is fair, how he is treating me.”

I look at Gabriel again; his head still down.

“I understand how you feel, Jacob.” He turns his attention to Gabriel and continues, “Is this true?”

“Yes, Father.”

My eyes narrow. I am surprised to hear him admit fault.

God seems surprised by his reaction, as well. “I want you to apologize to Jacob.”

“Sorry,” he says, and there was no joke in his voice either.

“You are forgiven,” I say in response.

Gabriel turns around and walks through a portal.

“Jacob,” God turns his attention to me. “I sent him here to deliver a message. I want you to protect humanity. Something tells me, soon, that Lucifer is going to rebel against me. He wants my throne and will not give up without a fight. He plans to convince Adam and Eve to eat from the tree.”

“Do they know, not to eat from it?”

“No, I want you to tell them,” God says and vanishes.

It is bad enough that I am in love with this girl, bad enough that I thought she was my wife, and wish Lynn is here. I do not need to go up to them and be made fun of when all I am doing is trying to help. I need to man up and tell them what God told me. I also need to keep an eye on Lucifer.

This hero stuff is becoming exhausting, that is for sure.

I am keeping a watchful eye on both, but I never know how to approach them.

I took the risk and walk up to Adam.

“Adam,” I say.

“Yes, Jacob? How may I help you?”

“Wait, you know my name?”

“Yes, my wife told me your name.”

“Oh,” I continued. “I come with a message from God.”

Adam straightened up and got ready for the message.

Looking at him makes it hard to keep a straight face. He looks like a child getting ready for story time.

“God has instructed me to tell you, that you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you do, you will die.” I feel powerful saying that to Adam.

“Very well, I will make sure that I tell Eve this message, once she has returned from her outing.”

“What… outing?”

I stare at Adam, for a moment, expecting more than what he gave me.

He does not.

His eyes keep staring, blankly, into mine, like he was completely oblivious as to what could happen. I do not let go of my gaze on him. I need more answers.

“Adam?” I call, looking for the answer to the question I gave.

“I don’t know where she is,” Adam answers, acting like he is annoyed to answer me.

I put my head down and shook from left to right, showing my disappointment. I have a problem with the answer that he gave me.

I try hard to not realize that Lucifer could be making his way with her right now. Not in a naughty way, but giving her a chance to eat from the forbidden tree. I turn to look down the long aisle of trees.

“Jacob?”

Her voice should not sound like that like I have been hearing it for the past eleven years , rather than a few moments while here.

I turn slowly toward her, hoping to hide the love in my eyes. I know she is not my wife, but I cannot help it.

“Yes?” I asked.

She stares at me.

“So, God wants me to warn you about something.”

“Is that so?” she says with an angry tone. Yet, her lips begin to curl up into a smile.

“Look who is learning how to joke,” I say.

“I am sorry about before,” she says. “Everything was very new to me. Not to mention, you kept on calling me someone else? Lynn, was it?”

Embarrassed about before, I respond, “Yes.”

I walk away, with my head down, hoping that she does not see my sulking look. Arriving at my tree house, I cannot help but notice that Gabriel is sitting on my bench inside. He speaks, “Jacob?”

“Yeah, Gabriel?”

“I came to warn you. I overheard Lucifer talking to his followers that he is going to be paying Eve a visit.” The timing was perfect – it mean that I was nearing the end of my mission – or so I hope.

“Why would you come to tell me this?” I was surprised, like he seems to care about me.

“Well, I wanted to make sure that Adam and Eve didn’t screw up the human timeline,” he says. The only thing I can think of is, the only way it would screw up as if I intervened. Though it would be nice to have a truly Christian life.

“That means that Lucifer is going to make his move any time now,” I say, thinking out loud.

“I know, and unfortunately I cannot fight Lucifer – but you can.”

“Do you think I’m strong enough to beat him?”

“Yeah!” he chuckles.

“Then I need to make sure that I am ready,” I warn myself.

“Jacob, Father would not have put you here, if He didn’t think you were ready.”

“You’re right.”

I begin to get a little worried about what was coming. I read about the fall of man, but not the fall of the angels. Was it going to be just Lucifer? How many angels were coming? What happens if I fail? What happens if I succeed. All the thoughts lingering in my head, and I was distraught.

“You’ll be fine.”

“Why can’t you fight with me?”

I was hoping for a little help.

He responds quickly, “Lucifer is my older brother and God’s favorite. The last thing I would want is to get on his bad side.”

“Yeah, but,” I continue. “If you know that Lucifer is doing bad, isn’t it just as bad if you do nothing to stop him?”

Gabriel turns around and opens a portal to heaven in my “living room.” Looking at me he says, “I just can’t,” and walks through.

I walk outside to look at Adam and Eve, and what I am supposed to do with the information I have been given. Do I train for the fall or just wait for it to happen? I mean how hard can Lucifer be to fight. I took on Gabriel all right.

I made the breathtaking choice to jump off my balcony and talk to Eve… alone.

I wonder how I am going to do that. How I am going to gain her trust long enough to get her to break away from Adam to talk to her. If Eve goes near those two tree’s Lucifer might be there, waiting.

I go to where she usually is at this time of day. In the meadow playing with the bunnies. I do not want to startle her this time, so I stroll down the garden to reach the field. Once I arrive in the meadow, I can hear the familiar giggles. Her adorable laugh that brings light into my life.

“Eve?” I greet, approaching softly.

“Hello, Jacob.”

“I need to talk to you for a moment.”

“Okay.” She picks up a bunny and walks to me, petting it.

“I need you to stay away from those two trees.”

“Jacob, I understand that you are trying to protect me, but I know how to listen.” Her voice was changing from a sweet, tender tone to an aggravated tone that is about to storm off.

How am I supposed to get through to her when she does not want anything to do with me? Do I try to fight through it and teach her? Has Lucifer already gotten to her? I wasn’t going to let Lucifer destroy the humanity the God created here on earth.

I stare at her, annoyed. She is petting the bunny, as a smile runs away from her face. I began to think about God and why He would allow the tree they are not supposed to eat from in the garden.

I heard shuffling from behind me, that cause my wings to twitch. The only time this happens is when danger is nearby. I try to keep my ears focused on what is coming from behind, but I was also focused on the beauty in front of me.

“Eve, I want you to please go to Adam, quietly.”

She stares at me. “What for?” her annoyance turns to concern. This is the first time that Eve had something to fear since she woke up from Adam’s ribs. “Is everything alright?”

“To be honest with you, no. I sense something bad is near.”

“Okay.”

I watch her leave the meadow, still holding her little bunny. I begin to look for the invasive thing, whatever it is.

With no luck.

I do not want to fly up high, to get a better look, and risk the beast attacking Eve.

I overhear talking from a couple hundred feet away.

I run to where I hear the talking. Jumping over a shrub, splashing through the stream, and diving under a tree branch. A tall, dark and handsome man was standing next to the tree.

He asks Eve, “Were you told, you must not eat from any tree in the garden?”

Eve told him, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but Jacob told us that God said, “You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, or we will die.””

“He said that you will die?!” he chuckles. “Jacob warned you about this because he knows that God is worried that if you eat from the tree, you will have more powers that God. He does not want that.”

“Really?”

“Want me to show you?”

“Sure!”

He offers his hand to her, and she drops her bunny. The man was acting like a snake. The words he was saying, if I did not know any better, was…

“Lucifer!” I call out. They stop.

Lucifer turns his head slightly, to look at me with one eye, holding her hand. “Hello, Jacob.”

I walk to them and say, “You know that God doesn’t want her to eat from the tree for a specific reason, that has nothing to do with power.”

Lucifer lowers his head and stares at me under his eyebrows. He then lifts his head and looks at her and smiles. “Would you trust me, an angel that has never lied to you, or an angel that has been lusting for you?”

Shocked that he would use that I argue, “Eve, God gave me instructions to help you, not to distract you.”

She stares at me, seeming oblivious to the fact that I was helping her more than trying to spend time with her. She looks like she is considering what he was telling her. This made me angry. Angry that I am unable to stop her if she chooses to walk with Lucifer.

She glances down for a moment to contemplate what I had said.

“Will I die?” she asks me.

Knowing the truth, I do not want to tell her what her death meant. I want to sit here and tell her that she will die a spiritual death and it would allow hatred into the world. All of the animals will stop loving her and God will kick them out of paradise on earth. That doing so will cause a series of unfortunate events, including her sons Cain and Abel.

I chose to keep silent and just get mesmerized by her beauty.

“I asked you a question, Jacob. If I eat the fruit, will I die?”

There it was again, the heartbreaking question.

“Huh?”

“You see, he isn’t even listening to you,” Lucifer says.

I didn’t like the angel, Lucifer, at all. He needs to die and to be sent to hell. But I cannot kill him. “This has nothing to do with me not listening or being in love.”

“Of course not,” he mocks me like he is trying to win her over with his charm.

“Then why not tell me the truth, Jacob?”

“Yeah, why not you?”

I am getting annoyed by the two of them. Thoughts are running through my mind about the future, my time. If I intervened will I never know Lynn? If I do not, will I be stuck here forever? I want to make the right choice, but the bottom line is that Eve has to make this decision on her own. She is staring at me, annoyed, waiting for an answer. “I do not know what will happen,” I said.

“Either you are lying, or Lucifer is lying. One way or another, the only way to find out myself is to eat.”

“But wait, did God say that you cannot eat from the tree?”

“Yes,” she responds to Lucifer.

“What about the fruit that has fallen to the ground?”

She stals for a moment to think. “I guess that was never specified.” The three of us walk to the tree because I want to make sure that Lucifer is not more snake-like. I know I cannot mess with free-will, and neither can he. She has to make a choice.

She bends down and picks up one of the fruit. It looks like a golden red apple, with a glow like a halo but not as bright. She sifted through it. Then she sinks her teeth into the apple. Juices pouring out of the sides and running down her lips.” This is the best-tasting apple, in all of the garden. She grabs another from the ground and takes off running.

Watching Eve take a bite of that apple, I knew that my time here was far from over. Especially since she is taking the apple to Adam. From behind, Lucifer hits me in the back and kicks me. I drop, chest first. I pick up a handful of dirt and throw it at Lucifer, but he does not move an inch. I bring my foot to his face, but he counters and pushes me away.

I hurl myself at Lucifer, pinning him against the tree, where I smash my fists into his face, again and again. Leaves fall on us. Lucifer is not budging, just allowing me to hit him. I pause for a moment. Lucifer picks me up and throws me across the field like I was a piece of paper.

“You fight like Michael, interesting. Fighting like you have something to prove, but do not forget who I am. I am Father’s favorite son!” Lucifer says. I retreat to the trees to get a surprise on him. “You think the trees will save you? I can change my form to whatever I want, including one of your precious trees.” I move from branch to branch, waiting for the opportune moment. “I can feel the trees, I know what they are thinking, and where you are hiding.”

I jump out, silently, but his hand grips my neck tightly and throws me to the ground. Holding me down, he starts to pound my face with his fists until my skull begins to crack. Lucifer stands up and turns his back to me. He pulls an apple from the tree and crunches into it. I climb to my feet, unsteady.

He turns to look at me, approaches me and says, “I wonder what Father sees in you,” he continues. “Whatever it is…” I swing a fist at him – miss – Lucifer grabs my arm, picks me up over his head and says, “He’s wrong.” Lucifer throws me across the meadow again, into a tree. My back gives a horrible crack, and I feel an incredible amount of pain. “See you soon, I am sure!” Lucifer says and walks into a portal.

The pain I am feeling is unbearable, but I have to stop Eve from getting to Adam. By now, she is probably already there. I inch myself up, pushing through the pain. I flap my wings, that are not in any pain, and fly as fast as I can to the first couple.

I arrive at their tree made hut, and cannot find them. A portal appears nearby, and I worry that Lucifer has returned to finish what he started, but God walks through. “Where are Adam and Eve?”

“I’m sorry, I do not know. Lucifer beat me up pretty good.”

“Adam?!” God called.

“I’m sorry, Father, I heard you in the garden, but I was afraid because I did not want you to see me naked,” Adam says, hiding from behind a nearby bush.

“Who told you that you were naked?” God asks. “Have you eaten from the tree that I told you to never eat from?!”

Adam looks down in embarrassment, “Eve gave me an apple. I did not know where she had gotten it from, but it was a good apple.”

“Eve, how could you?”

“It was that angel, that one that Jacob was fighting. He told me to eat it.”

“I will deal with him later,” he continues. “Because of this, you will have very, very, painful childbearing. With even more painful labor during childbirth. To your husband, you will desire, and he will rule over you!”

She starts to weep at the punishment.

“Adam, even though you did not know, you too will be punished. The ground you stand on will not willingly give you food to eat from. You will have to work, hard, for your food all the days of your life. The ground will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat plants that grow in the field. It will not be an easy task to farm from the earth, and you will sweat. When all your days that I will promise you have been fulfilled, you will return to dust.” God calls a sheep to come to Him. He pets the sheep, and the wool came off. He creates clothes for them. Then God says, “Because you have done this, you will no longer be allowed to eat from the tree of eternal life. Be gone from this place, and never return. Jacob, escort them out!”

I did as I was told. The three of us walk to the edge of the garden. We turn around to say goodbye to the garden, my tree house, their hut, and all of the friendly creatures, one last time. Once we cleared the garden, a pair of flaming swords swung from a tree. Swaying back and forth to guard the entrée way to the Garden of Eden.

“Now what do we do Jacob?” Adam asks me.

“You’re going to have to populate the earth,” I continue. “Do not worry, I will not be far.

I jump into a nearby tree, to guard them. My work is far from over.