Antuki: A Little Boy's Story

Chapter 14: The Rivers of Eden

Days later in heavenly spacetime, St. Michael had brought Akio and Yoko to another part of the Garden. Seeing everything he had, the little boy was convinced that Paradise had no end, though the archangel assured him that it had. There was simply so much to see and do here that it was impossible for one to get bored.

A glorious King and Queen came to meet them, clothed in robes of light. The King had a long white beard flowing down to his feet, but he wasn't old. Rather, he was advanced in years and had plenty more to go.

Likewise, also the Queen, hand-in-hand with the King, had magnificent tresses of golden hair enwrapping her slender form. Looking at her, Yoko thought she embodied the very word 'Woman'.

As he had with the Band of Cesil, Akio had to fight the temptation to worship these marvellous beings. Their splendour made the Emperors of Japan look like paupers by comparison.

"Who are you, O glorious beings and majestic ones?" asked Akio and Yoko in unison.

St. Michael laughed. "These are your first parents, little Akio," he explained. "Give your greetings to your Father Adam and your Mother Eve."

Awed at the sight, the little boy gave the protoplasts a traditional Japanese bow. In response, the First Man and the First Woman stepped forward and gave their descendant a parental embrace.

"Welcome, Brightborn," said Father Adam, already knowing the meaning of his name. "You are well-known to both of us, for you are truly our bone and our flesh."

"And welcome are you, spirit made in the likeness of women," said Mother Eve to Yoko. "I see myself in the form the Lord has given you."

"This is a sight beyond human words!" gasped Akio, overwhelmed by the glory of the meeting.

"Didn't we say to you, that you'd see more wondrous things than this?" St. Michael reminded him, smiling. "Our journey is only just beginning!"

"What do you wish to show us, great ones?" asked Yoko humbly.

Father Adam smiled. "We're here to take you back to the beginning," he said. "Our Father, who is the One, wishes to show you the origin of mankind so that you'll have no doubts about our true nature."

"Yes, indeed!" agreed Mother Eve. "Many of our children on Earth have forgotten us; they now imagine they were born from beasts. This is not true! Yes, we were indeed made from the dust, as were the other animals, but the Lord God put His Spirit in us and made us godlike beings."

"Have you never read the Scriptures that our son David wrote?" asked Father Adam. "It says of us in the Psalms, 'Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.'This is the glory and honour of one made in the likeness of the living God!"

"I have heard your stories in church before," said Akio, "but I was never fully taught what being made in God's likeness really means."

Father Adam smiled again. "Come and see," he replied.

The First Man turned around and led his companions up a high mountain. Following his ancestors upward, Akio noticed that Adam and Eve seemed to be unusually tall for human beings.

"Why does everything seem so small here?" he wondered aloud.

"It isn't that these things are small, my son Akio," explained Father Adam. "Everything is bigger in Heaven than it is on Earth. In the beginning, our Father created us of an enormous size and stature. After we sinned, He decreed that mankind should decrease in size as wickedness abounded on Earth, lest we do too much damage to His creation."

They were about halfway up the mountain by now, high enough to have a clear view of the surrounding lands. From this vantage point, Akio could see that the Garden extended far to the south-west and the north-east.

"I can see rivers, Father Adam!" he exclaimed excitedly.

"Yes, indeed, my son," replied the old man. "The Father put these rivers here to water the Garden, and their sources come from far abroad. Their earthly counterparts still exist and are called by different names."

"What do you mean, Father?"

Father Adam pointed to the south-west. "Do you see that long, snaking river over there, Akio?" he asked. "That's the river Pishon, known to your generation as the White Nile of Egypt. It flows past and around a sandy land called Nubia, rich in gold and precious stones.

"And over there, next to it, flows the river Gihon. Today, it's called the Blue Nile, which flows around the land of Ethiopia."

Father Adam turned around to face the north-east. "Over there," he said, "flow the rivers of Mesopotamia. There is the river Hiddekel, also called the Tigris, and the fourth river is the Euphrates."

Little Akio didn't know it yet, but this would be one of the most hotly debated discussion topics he'd have in years to come. Some highly educated people would dispute the identities of the rivers, but the little boy had seen them with his own eyes.

"This mountain we're standing on," Father Adam continued, "is the mountain of the LORD's House. At its peak is Mt. Zion and the Heavenly Jerusalem, where the Father's throne is."

"That's right!" said Mother Eve. "This is the centre of the Garden, which divides Paradise into two halves. Your father takes care of the north-east, where his sons and the male beasts reside, while I'm in charge of the south-west, where my daughters and the female beasts dwell. This is how it was from the beginning."

"Are the Trees of Life and the Knowledge of Good and Evil at the top of this mountain?" asked Yoko.

"Absolutely!" replied Mother Eve. "Both of those trees are in the New Jerusalem. The Tree of Life stands on both sides of the river which flows from the Father's throne, while the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil stands on Golgotha."

Akio's jaw dropped. "On the site of the Crucifixion?!" he exclaimed.

"Why, of course, Aki-chan," said St. Michael. "All things must go back to where they came from. As the LORD said to Adam on the day of his fall, 'Dust thou art, and to dust shalt thou return.'"

"That is true," admitted Father Adam ruefully. "You already know that Golgotha means 'The Place of the Skull', but did you know that that skull was mine?"

Akio released a breath he didn't realise he'd been holding. "You were buried there when you died."

"Yes," said Father Adam, "along with your mother and your uncle, Abel. This place isn't far from the eastern border of Eden, where we were driven out by the Cherubim. When the word of the Father came to pass and we returned to the dust, He commanded that our bodies be laid to rest near the site of the Tree."

"And many, many years later, Someone else also came there to die," remarked Yoko.

Father Adam fell on his face in the direction of the New Jerusalem. "Ah, Lord GOD!" he cried out in anguish. "Who am I, and who are we, that Thou shouldst come and die for us? Thou didst take the Sword of the Cherubim in Thine own bosom, and Thou didst eat of the tree of the Cross, in which selfsame day Thou didst die. All the judgments You pronounced upon us fell on Your own Head, for great is Your love and mercy towards those who fear You."