On the other side of heaven, God was manifesting for a couple of different people who had died recently.  By an amazing coincidence, they had once known each through the abortion clinic too

Unlike Connie and Benjamin, these two souls had been on the other side of the abortion wars.  They had volunteered as escorts, accompanying women past the chasers, preachers, and prayers who lined the sidewalk in front of the clinic, supporting the clients’ right to choose.

Abby and David watch as God appears to them just as they’d always imagined her.  A little bit like the wind.  A little bit like a pillar of  fire.  And a little bit like  a black woman.  Whoopi Goldberg maybe.

Abby nudges David, delighted.  “Look,” she whispers, “She IS a black woman.  How cool is that??”

David is shaking his head, “I can’t believe it!  I didn’t even think there was a God!  I’m amazed!  I thought you were just a myth!”

God smiles, “Well, there’s a lot of myth to what people believe about me.  But here I am, for real.  Or at least as real as I can be to the newly decesased.”  And she sighs to herself, thinking of the misconceptions people bring.

They go on to review David and Abby’s lives, and God gives them both lots of positive feedback.  David gets some extra praise for having lived such a good life without the expectation of reward at the end.  And Abby feels quite satisfied with her share of kudos.

“There’s just one more thing,” says God.  “The abortion clinic.  We need to talk about what you two did at the abortion clinic.”

“Oh, yeah,” says Abby, smiling. She’s pretty sure this was one of the best things she did.  David is more cautious.

“What?”  He says.  “You’re not going to tell me we were wrong?  You’re not anti-abortion, are you?”

“No,” God says, “you were ok on that part of it.  And escorting the clients was a good thing.  But.  The way you viewed the protesters?  Really.  That was very disappointing to me.”

“The way I viewed them?” cries Abby.  “What did you want me to do?  They were awful!  How else could I have seen them?”

God shakes her head, “They were people, just like you.  They were trying to do the right thing as they saw it.”

“Listen, I tried,” said David.  “But really, they were always spouting that mumbo-jumbo about… oh.”  His voice trails off.

“About God?” says God, a bit sternly.

“Well, yeah, I mean, it just seemed ridiculous.  All that about evolution and dead babies and I didn’t know you were real.”

“Besides,” says Abby, “They were awful!  I mean, I tried too!  But they were horrible!  And such hypocrites, acting like they were such good Christians.  Out there shaming women, judging them.”

“So you figured it was ok for you to walk around in a rage, judging them?”

“Well, I couldn’t help it!”  Abby says, at the same time David says, “Hey, I tried not to!  I did the best I could do, really, I think I did the best anyone could do!”

God shakes her head.  “Well, if you”re going to enter the Gates of Heaven, you’ll have to figure out how to get along with them.  I won’t have you bickering and sniping at each other up here.

“Up here?” says Abby, “You mean those protesters are going to be in heaven with us?”

“Well, of course they are,” says God.  “Some of them anyhow.”

David and Abby look at each other in dismay.

“Omigod,” says Abby.  “This is going to be awful.”

“I know,” says David.  “An eternity with the protesters.  I don’t know if I can do that.”  He shakes his head.

God shrugs.  “Well,” she says, “You don’t have to.  There’s always a choice.  You can go this way instead.”   She gestures, and  a stairway opens at their feet.

Abby and David peer down the stairs.  At the bottom they can see a couple of old friends, waving their arms and saying something.  Unfortunately, neither David nor Abby can hear the words or even interpret the facial expressions.

“Maybe she’s not God,” says Abby.  “Maybe this is a trick.”

“I know,” says David.  “And really, spending eternity having to get along with the protesters?  I don’t know if I can do that.”

“I hear you,” says Abby.  She turns to God and asks, “Are the protesters different in heaven?  Are they still arrogant and nasty or have they repented?”

God frowns.  “You don’t need to worry about whether they’ve repented or not.  You need to change how you think about them.  If you don’t want to go to heaven with the protesters, you have a choice.  The decision is yours.”

David and  Abby look at each other.

God shakes her head.  Humans.  “Take your time,” she says.  “I’ll come back later.  I think I’ll go visit dog heaven for a while.”  At least dogs didn’t have these self-absorbed notions of what heaven should be ~ in dog heaven, even God could just throw some sticks and have a good time.

 {to be continued…}