Separated from Grace: Speak no Evil Book One

By Tony Hirner

Freddy is getting closer to the end of his life. As he recalls the events of his life, struggling with the meaning of it all, he suffers significant mental turmoil. However, Freddy starts receiving recurring dreams that are sent to help him get to the bottom of the meaning of his life. Join Freddy in his dreams with a cast of very rich char

• Language: English
• Publisher: Palmetto Publishing
• Release date: Jul 25, 2022
• ISBN: 9798885908719

Tony Hirner

Tony Hirner is a writer who had the advantage of growing up on a farm in the Midwest. Although he did not experience a lot of hustle and bustle in his early life, the people around him inspired his enjoyment of various personalities. Tony approaches his writing from the development of the characters, which brings much richness to his stories.

Book preview

Chapter One

Establishing Oneself

We cannot despair of humanity since we ourselves are human beings.

—Albert Einstein

T

here exists a perch high above all worlds where angels poise to ponder the ways of man. Their perception of time and space are not the same as ours, or like time on any other world that they bear witness to. Angels are outside of our time and can see all points in eternity at once, or be sent to any point in time that God chooses.

At one point in eternity, a cynical thought arose in a younger angel named Nathan. He was confused by the way humans couldn’t stop doubting their creator. For one reason or another, humans constantly found a way to doubt everything. Nathan couldn’t figure out how humans could be daft enough to reject all the signs that they had a creator and should be delighted to worship him for his greatness.

His next complaint about humans was that they wanted things all the time, even the most unreasonable things. They would come up with the craziest requests for the Lord, like Please send me a defending scarecrow. Unbelievable, he thought. Why do they think they deserve such treatment?

There was a time when Nathan had been able to give mankind a break here and there. He truly believed that one day, the hearts of men would bring them to worship God all around the world. But a terrible incident had happened in history that involved men trading the life of the messiah for that of a well-known criminal named Barabbas. As a result, mankind put the savior through unspeakable pain and torture in place of one who truly deserved it.

Nathan was missing the point that the messiah did what he did for all of us, and that Barabbas was the picture of humanity. Even though we deserve punishment for our sins, forgiveness is available to us through the savior. I think Nathan truly knew that but didn’t think we deserved it. Or maybe he just didn’t know why God put so much effort into humans. Either way, that’s when Nathan lost his belief that men could do right and do well.

More importantly, Nathan also didn’t see that our existence glorifies God in a way that makes his greatness shine on full display. This was a problem, because angels are supposed to watch out for people. If an angel doesn’t believe that men can do right, why would that angel want to help men? Furthermore, if an angel decides not to carry out his orders . . . well, just ask Lucifer how that works out. The burden that angels bear, to keep doing things because they are told and not to exercise their opinions, is like having the weight of the world on their shoulders, but they must do it.

When the high council of angels learned of Nathan’s confusion, they held a secret gathering to decide how to save the faith of an angel who seemed to be faltering in his trust. The matter also had to be brought to God’s attention, and the course of action had to meet his approval. After this, it was settled on that they would send Clarence, a somewhat more schooled angel, to give Nathan a lesson on the reception of God’s will in man. With Clarence’s help, Nathan would be sent into the world to live with humans and experience their lives, both as a human himself and as an outsider living among them.

As a human, Nathan would be given the identity of a butler named Slater in a house in St. Louis, Missouri. For the outsider role, Clarence came up with the idea of making Nathan into the scarecrow on the Comonman farm to help and watch over the girls. Most of the details were kept from him so that he would experience everything blindly, just like humans. As a human, he would also be given memories of living on earth for decades and would have no memories of having been an angel. Both lives would take place at the same time, because time isn’t the same for angels.

Clarence would oversee and take part in both lives, as would many other angels. Clarence liked the idea of directing these events and picking out characters to play to fit into each life and make the greatest impact on how Nathan perceived mankind. Clarence would also play the role of an antagonist to Nathan, hindering his actions. He might even be perceived as a bit evil, which was a juicy and interesting prospect to Clarence. He was dedicated to doing the best job he could to teach Nathan about mankind.

Nathan would not be told any of the details except that was to be the angel that came to the girls in the form of the scarecrow, just like they had prayed for. And without Nathan or Clarence, knowing the Lord also set at least ten other angels to oversee the plan, and he decided to take a large part in it himself. Then it was set into motion with a one and a two, and Nathan found himself tied to a tall post in a field in the Midwest in the summer of 1895.

Once he was able to get himself loose, Nathan took a quick look around, and what he found was very pleasant. He saw beautiful trees in the distance, and the warm summer sun was welcoming. He wasn’t accustomed to that sensation, as it’s almost always the same temperature in heaven. He thought briefly that this would be a very pleasant assignment, possibly the best thing he’d ever been sent to do. After all, all he had to do was protect these girls and help them save their farm.

Nathan completely missed the point that his mission was more about learning why humans do the things they do, and why God seems to love them and includes them in his plans. In other words, what the hell are we here for? So the sad part is that Nathan would not be able to succeed in his mission. The only question whether he would ever understand that failure was part of the divine plan. Nathan also failed to recognize right away that things in this life weren’t quite right. Something about reality wasn’t normal. It was odd that he didn’t pick up on this. He’d been observing humans for eons, but for some reason he just didn’t notice that the place seemed a little like a dream.

The truth of the matter should be told up front. The girls didn’t survive, and they were now in heaven with their parents. The girls Nathan found himself protecting were aspects of God, who had split himself into several individuals that would interact with Nathan throughout his adventure. Doing this made it possible for God to live among people without them immediately dying from being in his full presence.

Anyway, it was soon evident that Nathan did not have a mouth, so he couldn’t talk. It was also evident that he had great strength. He was easily as strong as eight men. Around him, as I said, Nathan saw cornfields and trees, and he could tell that it was the middle of summer because it was a hot, bright, sunny day.

He wasn’t aware of his surroundings for more than a minute when he was approached by three young girls, the oldest around thirteen. She had blonde hair that hung a little past her shoulders and big blue eyes. The other two were ten-year-old twins with brown hair pulled into unbraided pigtails. They were practically attached to their older sister.

The oldest introduced herself simply. Hello. I’m Grace, and I’ve been praying for you to come for some time now. These are my sisters, Faith and Hope, and we’re all alone on this farm since our parents died last month. We need help.

Nathan was taken aback by the way Grace just came up to him, showing no shock or surprise that he was a living scarecrow, and how the other girls just trusted him completely from the start. Not having a way to respond, he nodded and gave her a hug. Hugs were plentiful from the three girls. They were very loving and made Nathan feel at home. He noted that all three were clean and dressed simply in good clothes with no markings or fanciness about them. The girls just seemed to be good all the way.

Grace and her sisters led Nathan around the farm and showed him all the work that needed to be done. The grass hadn’t been cut in weeks, for one, and now it had seed tops on each blade. But that was the least of the problems. Hardly any chores had been done for a while, though the girls had at least been able to feed and water the animals.

The deal Nathan made with the girls was that when they got home from school each day, this task would remain their responsibility, and he would handle everything else. With gleeful smiles they agreed, feeling relief that everything might now be all