The Power and the Glory
By Kate Everson
Smashwords edition
Copyright 2011 Kate Everson
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The time was now.
There was no other time.
“It has to be now … or never,” thought Thomas. And he jumped off the cliff.
Far below the ragged rocks caught his body and tore it to shreds. He lay there, lifeless, until the tide washed him out to sea, bobbing with the seaweed. Then mercifully, a giant shark popped him like a tart for breakfast.
That was it for Thomas.
“Well, that was a bad decision,” thought What Once Was Thomas, mangled and mushed inside the shark’s big belly. “Maybe I’ll try that again.”
No such luck. He blew it. Gone. No second chances.
At least not for him. However …
“Thank God for resurrection!” laughed What Once Was Thomas, as his spirit quickly escaped the meal of the shark and rose up above it all. He was in a new element, the ether, looking down at the ocean. The tide had just gone out, and already rescuers were searching for his body.
“Good luck!” he thought grimly. 
And he set about rediscovering his new Self.
He was not solid any more, no flesh to weigh him down, but lighter than air, composed of mostly energy particles. Some of him shone brightly, especially near the heart, but the rest just kind of floated invisibly above the earth matter. 
“Am I a ghost?” he wondered.
He could not see what he was. He knew he wasn’t human, but what was he? 
Instead of looking down, he began to look around, look up and see the sky, watch the wind and forget about himself. Who cares what he was now? All that seemed to matter now was his space. It was incredible. 
An unearthly glow all around him was a piece of heaven right here, right now. He could not remember having ever seen such a quality of light. There were shades of pink and purple and blue and green he had never known before. They were illumined from within. He felt himself rising with the Light, feeling lighter and lighter, letting it guide him wherever it chose. 
“I feel … but I don’t really feel,” he said. “It’s more a sense of Being, that transcends all feelings. It’s like being space.”
In a few more levels, What Once Was Thomas would soon discover something even more amazing. He would reach the place of All Power and Glory. The summit of perfection. The Jewel of the Heavens. 

He was not afraid. He knew this would be the ultimate travel destination. Reaching the heavens, he would become a part of it. Maybe he would never return to earth again.
Somehow, that was all right with the former Thomas. It had not been a particularly great life on earth, and he was ready to find something brighter. A happier place. If anywhere, it had to be here.
But he had no idea.
“Come here,” said the shape of a Man. Thomas trembled and fell at his feet. “I am here,” he said humbly.
“That way,” the Man pointed into a cave.
Thomas was surprised, but did what he was told. His invisible body slithered into the cave where everything was dark and dank. He looked around at the ancient paintings on the rocks, where others had gone before and left their mark. On the roof of the cave were bats hanging upside down by the thousands. This did not look like heaven.
“Where am I?” he asked, but nobody answered. Nobody was there but him.
He began to feel his body again. It felt cold and numb, but definitely shaping up to be skin and bones. Was the old Thomas coming back?
In a corner of the cave was a small campfire burning. He sat by the fire and tried to get warm, but he just shivered and shivered. This was a coldness he had never felt before. 
“THOMAS,” a Voice said. It boomed and echoed around the cave.
Thomas shivered even more. He almost jumped out of his skin!
“I am here,” he said meekly to the walls.
“THOMAS,” the unnamed Voice repeated. “You are here for a reason. I have a use for you. On Earth. You are going back.”
“No!” screamed Thomas. “I wanted to end that life and I did. That’s over, done with. I have moved on. I am in a better place now. Aren’t I?”
The Voice laughed, and it echoed like a hollow drum. A few bats flew off and circled the fire, then returned to the cave ceiling.
“Oh, no, Thomas,” the Voice boomed. “It’s not that easy. Never that easy. You left too soon, Thomas. You had not finished your mission on earth. You have to go back.”
Thomas shivered and shook with terror. He did not want to go back. People were mean to him there. Even his family had hurt him. His girlfriend had run off with another guy, a cuter, taller, richer guy. He never had any luck. He just wanted to get out of there. So he had ended it all. Or so he thought.
“Thomas,” the Voice went on, rumbling like dry stones. “You will return. And you will try again. Only this time, we will give you a special Message. You must spread that message to others. It will be your only goal.”
“What is the message?” he asked, terrified. If he had to go back, it had better be something good.
“The Message,” the Voice boomed, “is Gratitude.”
Thomas waited. There was nothing more.
“That’s it?” he asked. It did not seem like enough.
There was a deep silence. Then the Voice said, as if from a distance, “That is Everything.”
Suddenly, the cave went black. The fire was gone. Thomas could see nothing, but he felt the wind all around him. He heard it howling like a lost wolf in the timbers, looking for its home. A thousand bats blew by his head, within inches of his face. He jumped back, but they were gone. Then the sky burst open with one last glimpse of Glory, and it too had vanished.
Thomas was home.
He landed on a patch of green grass, not far from his house. He walked shakily on his newly restored limbs. He felt weak and hungry. But, looking down, he realized gratefully, that his body was still intact. Everything was the same as it was.
“Now what?” he asked the Sky. “Here I am. Now what? What has changed?”
But he knew instinctively, that nothing was the same as it had been, because he was different. He had seen the Power and the Glory and returned with a special message to share with the world. Gratitude.
Thomas looked up at the Sky, and said, “Thank you.”
The Sky opened up and a beam of sunlight poured through. It warmed his face. He felt the heat moving through his whole body. He felt alive again, maybe for the first time. 
“I am here,” he said simply. “I am alive and I am here.” 
He felt grateful from his bare feet up to the top of his curly dark hair. No matter what life threw at him this time, he was ready. It couldn’t be worse than the bat cave!!
Thomas laughed, a huge luxurious laugh. The sound bounced off the clouds and suddenly birds came out of nowhere and started singing. Children on their way to school stopped and stared, then they too started laughing and skipping. It was a glorious day to be alive!

Thomas kept the image of the bats in his thoughts, to remind him of the alternatives to living a good life here on earth. He had to try harder. He had to make it work. And now, having talked to his Messenger, he knew what he had to do.
“I am on a mission to show the world the wonder all around them,” he thought. “There is so much to be grateful for.”
Thomas walked around his small town, and found something everywhere that needed encouragement. A tiny flower growing out of the concrete, reaching for the sunlight, shared his message. Grateful for everything it had. A child walking with the help of her brother was glad he was there. An old lady hobbling across the street was suddenly very, very grateful. He touched everyone and everything with the same message: gratitude for what you have and who you are.

The Earth itself was a beautiful place. The trees were magnificent. Each one deserved praise just for being there, offering oxygen and shade to the world. Thomas was not afraid to hug a tree. He joined millions of other tree huggers all over the world. He did not care what people thought. He was just glad to be alive.
“I love it here!” he said to the woods, to the flowers, and to every person he met. 
But there were some, of course, who did not share that feeling. They were too deep in their own pain to feel the joy. There was no gratitude, only despair. Thomas knew he had to change that.
“God loves you,” he said to an old man who had just lost his wife of 56 years. 
The man shook his head. He could not understand love now. He was alone and miserable. “Go away!” he yelled at Thomas. “Get out! Where is love now? Why did He take her away from me? ”
Thomas was not so easily dissuaded. He put his arm around the elderly man and spoke gently into his good ear. “It’s okay,” he said. “I understand. You are feeling sad now, I know. But life is still a beautiful place. You are still alive and there are more things here on earth that you have not yet seen or experienced. Come. Please. Come with me and I will show you.”
Reluctantly, but bowing to Thomas’ persistence, the old man was led by the hand to a town he had never seen in quite the same way.
“Look,” Thomas said, pointing to a gray squirrel climbing a tree. “Have you ever seen a creature with such agility and grace?”
The squirrel perched on a limb and flicked its tail. It seemed to know it was being appreciated. 
Thomas led the man to a stone cottage covered in vines and flowers. “Look,” he said. “Have you ever seen such simplicity and beauty?”
The man was getting tired, so Thomas led him to a small café where a young girl brought them tea and scones. She smiled at them and her face lit up like sunshine.
“Have you ever seen such a smile?” asked Thomas.
And the old man smiled himself, for the first time in many weeks. There was no denying to Thomas that this was anything but a wonderful world. There was something everywhere to be grateful for.
Thomas went about the small village, sharing his message with everyone he could. Where there was sorrow, he brought joy. Where there was anger, he brought peace. Where there was hatred, he brought love.
And each time, he offered Gratitude to the heavens. 
“Thank you,” he said to the blue sky. “Thank you for showing me what life can be. There is always something to be grateful for and the most important lesson of my life is gratitude to You.”

From the top of a tall pine, a pinecone came tumbling down and landed on his head. Thomas picked it up and stared at it thoughtfully. A message from the King of Trees, he laughed. 
He took the pinecone into the junior class of a nearby school and asked the teacher if she would put it on the shelf with their nature studies. She looked surprised, but did what he said. The children liked the pinecone and whenever they touched it something magical happened.
One little girl with a torn dress touched the pinecone and she began to smile and smile. “I feel so happy!” she exclaimed to her friends. “I don’t care what anybody says about my dress. I am happy to have something to wear and a school to go to, and my good health. I am grateful for all I have!”
The other girls were surprised to hear this shy girl speak like that. But they felt her new strength and stopped bullying her. She had a joy they could not understand but they respected it. She was touched by a higher power than they even knew.
A boy touched the pinecone and felt stronger. He had not been good at sports but now he started exercising more and gaining strength. He excelled at his favourite sport, baseball, and batted that ball right out of the park! He laughed. There was something about that pinecone… 
When Thomas heard about the magical powers of the pinecone, he was astonished. There was more going on here than he was aware of. Someone was helping him on his mission. He wondered who it was.
That night, he stood under the huge pine tree. It got darker and the moon came out. Suddenly, Thomas felt something. It was a presence and it was coming from the Tree.
Then he heard it speak, softly in his left ear.
“Thomas… ” it said.
Thomas jumped. Trees could speak? But somehow nothing surprised him any more. He had been to hell and back and was here for the ride of his life.
The Tree told Thomas to climb up its trunk. He did. 
“Higher,” the Tree said. And Thomas climbed to the very top and sat in the branches.
“Is that high enough?” he laughed.
The Tree shook its branches and some pine needles fell on his head, making a lovely needle hat. He shook them off and put his ear to the tree. “Tell me,” he said. “What do I need to know?”
The Tree said, “Thomas you have been doing very well spreading the message of gratitude but there is something more you must share.”
“What is that?” he asked. 
“Magic,” the Tree said, and shook so hard that Thomas fell all the way down and landed in the soft grass. He got up and wiped off the pine gum from his jeans and gave a hearty laugh.
“OKAY!” he declared and off he went on his new mission. The message of Magic was about to have a new face in that town. Thomas the Magician was born!

Thomas didn’t know much about magicians, but he knew Merlin was the greatest of all. So he took a little trip to Tintagel, and found a statue of Merlin in the town. Tourists would stop and get their picture taken with it, and Merlin passed a little bit of his magic to everyone he touched.
So Thomas went up to Merlin and asked him directly for his help.
“Merlin,” he said. “Help me. I need your magic touch.”
Merlin did not move. After all, he was just a statue. But Thomas came back that night under a full moon and asked him again. This time, he got a response.
“Wait for me by the stone wall,” he heard Merlin say. 
So Thomas, not surprised by anything these days, went and stood by the wall, hoping it was the right one. He stood there patiently for about an hour. Just when he was about to give up, he saw a goat. It walked right up to him and said, “Naaaa.”
Thomas took the goat by the horns and it led him down a rocky path to the side of the ocean. The waves were crashing and the moon reflected off the cliffs. It was a scary place to stand, but Thomas was not afraid of anything any more. He trusted his guide.

He could see everything as if it were bright as day, and he followed the stone steps to the bottom of the cliffs. The sandy beach at the bottom felt good on his bare feet and he stood in the crashing waves for a few moments, feeling their power.
“I have the power,” he told Merlin who had quickly transformed himself out of the goat. “But I don’t know how to use it.”
Merlin smiled and said, “Follow me.”
He led Thomas along a winding path on the rocky shoreline and eventually they came to a small hut. They went inside. There, Merlin started cooking up a concoction of herbs and strange mixtures he got from jars on the shelf. Thomas had no idea what they were. Merlin stirred the substances and smoke began to rise from them. Then he held it out to Thomas and said, “Drink.”
Thomas took one sip and almost spat it out.
“Yuck!” he said.
“Drink more!” ordered Merlin. And Thomas did as he was told.
Suddenly, the room got as bright as sunlight. Thomas felt the sun pour into every pore of his being. He became sunlight. 
“I feel lighter,” he said. 
Merlin laughed. “And so you should,” he said. “You just swallowed a whole year’s worth of sun bright!”
Thomas could see everything clearly now, more than ever. He opened his eyes wider and wider and saw in Merlin the shape of many different creatures, from toads and bats to goats and fairy princesses. Merlin was indeed many things!
Then Merlin passed him a mirror. Thomas looked and was amazed. He saw his face change into hundreds of different faces, one after the other. He had lived many times in many forms. Now, looking back at him, was a new Thomas, one with blue hair and a goat’s eyes. Then it vanished and he was his familiar self again.
“Whew!” he said, putting down the mirror. “That was quite a trip!”
 Merlin laughed and told Thomas he had to use that knowledge to help others. He placed in his hand a magical scepter, one that was invisible to others, but could transform people’s lives.
Thomas bowed. “Thank you,” he said. “I will do my best.”
“See that you do, Thomas!” Merlin roared. “I will be watching!”
Now that Thomas had magical powers, he knew what he had to do. He was a changed person, and everything he had been through had made him stronger and more aware. No longer did he live just for himself. What he felt or thought was nothing. He was an instrument to be used to make this a better world. He was the essence of the Power and Glory here on earth. 
And he was very, very glad.

 The End
Read more inspirational stories at: The Power of Magnificence, and Rebekah in Cornwall and Life Lessons from Home Sweet Home and A Song for Rebekah.