The Golden Sash

“Oh the power, the Wisdom, the Love,” I murmured, trying to realise it all. After a while, I asked, “What of the people?

Who are they and where were they when we first came?” “This is a Plane Between,” Stephen explained. That was all he said but it opened up my link with his mind. I just lay, drinking it all in. . . The Plane Between. So this is where people met. People from Heaven’s realm and people from earth who had left their bodies in sleep.

Then these people—I looked searchingly at them—were from both Heaven and earth! “You cannot see any difference between them.” I said at length. “Why should you?” responded James in a matter-of-fact tone. “Each has shed his physical body on earth. Because one sheds his sheath for a few hours only, why should his spiritual body appear to be different?

If a man takes off his overcoat for an hour while he visits a friend, does he appear to be different from the same man who hangs his overcoat on a peg for the night in his own home?” The force of this argument completely convinced me. I just lay watching these people as they laughed and played, talked and lived. How ordinary it was. Oh, foolish men who fear to shed their earth-bodies!

And then a new thought occurred to me. “What of their robes? Do they not appear different after all the reparation and cleansing?” “Those are visible to the angels. We do not look upon the mystic robe of another. Then, of course, the Master sees all.” Presently, James broke the silence by saying gently, “The Master will be coming soon.” “He is coming here? Here, where all can see Him? Oh, it will be like Palm Sunday on earth!” (For in that moment my gladness revealed to me more than was spoken in words.) “It will be like Palm Sunday in Heaven,” Stephen cried with an exultant ring in his voice. “Every evening He comes to His people here. That is why it so closely resembles the Realm above.” “Will I be able to speak to Him? Really be able to speak to Him, even to touch His robe? Will I—” I broke off, breathless. “All those things,” Stephen assured me. “He comes as a King among His subjects, as a Friend among His friends, and as such we acclaim Him, draw near, and He blesses us.”

“From Him you will receive the Golden Sash when you are united before Him to The One,” said James. I did not know what he meant by that and my spirit was too hushed to find expression in words. I just lay gazing out over the green where all the people had melted away. I knew that in the houses others were waiting, even as I. . . Thus it fell out, even as Stephen and James had said. I cannot recall every incident. I could not describe it all, even if I would. I only know that every smallest wish to see Him as He was in those far-off earth-days was fulfilled. My ears still ring with the praises of the people and the music the angels played when He came. All they said of Him, those simple fishermen, was true!

Afterwards, when He had gone and everyone was hushed, I found that Janet was beside me and I knew that she was The One. About my waist, and about hers also was a sash of a golden hue. These matched one another exactly. Inwardly I new that every pair of sashes matched and that no two pairs were of the same shade. That just as many pairs of sashes as there were, so were there shades of gold, ranging from the palest straw-colour to the deepest flame. I knew also that we had been united here—and all others, too—because it was on this Plane we had first met, where we had cemented our relationship while our bodies slept on earth. Truly it was fitting that here we should receive the Golden Sash!