One Step Higher: Part II: Chapter 5

DESIRE STUFF

‘Is the story in the book part of our mind-picture, too?’

He looked up again, smiling. This time he entirely closed the volume as though he thought he would have no chance to study for a long while!

‘No. This story is kept in the records of the Hall of Books. On the lower planes, when a man desires a book, he wills it to him by desire. Then the book “tells” itself to him in his mind.’

‘Arthur explained that,’ I said.

‘Yes! Here, we draw the invisible matter of the book and imprint it on the blank pages of our created volume. Of course, if we will, we may imprint our own story…’

‘As my children have had so much theory,’ said our guide, ‘will you give them some practical instruction, too?’

‘Most certainly.’ And now the angel-student put away his book altogether, but we knew he did not mind, for he was smiling.

‘What would you like to work upon?’ asked our guide. ‘Do you want to make some stars or a new moon for the baby angels?’

‘Is that how they were made?’ Janet asked delightedly.

‘Of course… But that was only a laughing suggestion! What would you like to make?’

Janet’s mind mingled with mine, and we held a rapid, though voiceless consultation.

‘A book like the angel-student’s,’ she said at last, ‘but with blue covers and plain, gilt edges.’

‘And you?’ Our guide turned to me.

‘I want to make a story for the book, all about the Father’s Love. It will tell of people on many planes from the lowest to -well, to quite a high plane-showing how the desires of their hearts have been fulfilled. And for its title I shall choose that lovely saying, “Heaven is fulfilment”.’

‘How ambitious!’ smiled the angel-student. ‘You will have first of all to visit all these people and all the planes before you can even begin your story.’

‘Then I will!’

The two angels exchanged a smile and I thought at first I was going to be asked to make another choice. Then our guide said:
‘Very well. Let us deal with Janet’s desire and then you can both come back for your “fulfilment” when you are ready. Now,’ he said briskly, ‘I want you both to sit down and think clearly of the volume you wish to form. When you have finished the “desire-stuff” will be ready.’

We began at once and as we concentrated on the beautiful volume I was dimly aware that both angels were standing, occasionally lifting their hands and making other gestures of great reverence and beauty. I knew that they were asking the Father to send His light into the invisible cells around us and I longed to watch but I knew that this was forbidden. Obediently I bent my attention to the inward picture and the book began to take shape more clearly in my mind. I knew that this was so, also, with Janet, for she pressed wordlessly upon me that she wished for gilt edges and not red-gold.

Suddenly a great sound rang out into the air. It sounded like one word although it may have been many, pronounced rapidly. Both the angels cried it aloud together and when, startled, we looked up, we were surrounded by a living rainbow! That is what it seemed at first sight. It was glorious! The “Stuff” clothed the trunk of every tree and hung from all the boughs. It shimmered on the blades of grass and piled up in sparkling array on every side. It was constantly changing and moving. Its colours were of that breath-taking splendour I had seen before, not one shade remaining the same, but each giving place to another and another; and the whole filled with a blazing, fiery glow.

We feasted our eyes upon it for a long time. The two angels knelt and drew their wings as a screen around them. The ‘enchanted wood’ was our Heaven for the time…

Presently the angels arose and asked us if our picture was completed.
‘Yes,’ said Janet.

Then they began to teach us how to breathe and how to pray, breathing and praying with us. I do not know how long a time was passed in this way but at last, to our inexpressible delight, the volume lay in Janet’s hands. How eagerly we looked at and handled it! The cover had the appearance of the finest leather and was of a rich blue, tooled in gold in the exact design we had visualised. The edges gleamed, the paper was thick and shiny so that it reflected the light. Reverently we passed it from one to the other.

‘Our thought,’ Janet whispered, ‘His power.’

‘How I am longing to imprint my story upon it,’ I answered, smoothing the pages with a loving finger.

Presently we remembered to thank the angels. We put the book down and went to them and they instantly uncovered their faces to smile at us. How sympathetic they were!

‘It is always a joy to know the unfolding of powers,’ said our guide. ‘Do you not know a baby’s pleasure in its first, faltering steps, or a kitten’s when it first opens its eyes on a wonderful world?’

‘Look,’ said the student-angel, ‘it has vanished with a breath.’ We turned-and our volume had gone.

‘Oh, our beautiful book,’ Janet cried regretfully, but the angel comforted us.

‘It awaits you in the unseen; never fear. When Bernard and Janet return with the story it shall be visible in a moment of time!’

‘What of your book?’ Janet asked, pointing to the volume on the grass. ‘Will it, too, disappear?’

‘Yes, when I have finished my studies,’ explained the angel. ‘Then I shall withdraw the life-breath; the volume will return to its original cells and the story will return to the Hall of Books.’

Once more he lifted the book, found the place and slipped his finger into it. Then with a smiling farewell, he returned to his interrupted studies.

As we walked back through the wood from which the ‘Stuff’ had now quite melted away, our guide gave us a searching glance. ‘Happy?’ he asked.

Janet answered for both. ‘Oh, angel dear, thank you for everything.’