BETTER SAFE THAN ZOMBIE

OZTS 11.5| Christian

When I was a four, my mother used to tell me a story.

She would have tucked me into bed, make me say my bedtime prayers, and because I was still wide awake like any young boy would be at that age, she would tell me a bedtime story.

This was my favorite.

"Once ago," she would begin, her voice lowering to a soft hush, "There was a very, very bad boy. The only good thing he ever did in his entire life was to save a cat from being ran over by a car, and the rest he spent doing evil things."

My eyes would be wide, getting into the moment and imagining it. I could see the boy, his eyes dark and wicked. I could see the cat, looking weak and pitiful, the car about to crush him.

"He was damned," My mother would continue, still in that dramatic voice. "And then, suddenly, the bad boy died. And because he was bad, and naughty, and did things he shouldn't have done, the bad boy went to hell."

"But what is hell, Mama?" I would interject at this point. "Is it bad?"

My mother would shake her finger in my face, putting on a mock-terrified look. "Hell is very, very bad. There are fires everywhere, and bad people burn in it. Everyday, bad people in hell are punished and tortured for the wrongs they have committed."

To a four year old, that sounded ominous. I remembered being particularly nice every time I remembered that story, so that I wouldn't go to hell.

"So that bad boy was sent into hell. And he suffered. One day, as God watched what was going on in hell from his throne above in the heavens, he remembered the bad boy. He remembered that the bad boy once saved a cat, and because of that, God gave him a second chance to escape his fate from down below.

So, God decided to lower a golden thread to the boy. It was a thin string, but it shone like starlight. And in hell, where everything was darkness, the thread shone like the sun to the boy. He knew it was his salvation, perhaps the only escape he will ever have from his fate. So he grabbed it, and began to climb."

"Will the bad boy be saved?" I would always ask, even though I would have heard this story a thousand times. And everytime, Mama would simply smile, and go on with the story.

"So the boy climbed. But he wasn't the only one who saw the golden thread. Other bad people in hell saw it too. And so when the boy looked down, he saw hundreds of people climbing the thread.

The thread was so thin, and looked so fragile, the boy was terrified it would snap at any moment. So he kicked all the other bad people who were climbing, and God watched as hundreds of people fell down.

Finally, the boy was the only one left. He was almost at the top, his head brushing the heavens. He looked up and saw God, who was smiling sadly. And then the thread snapped."

"What? But Mama, why? He was the only one left, and he was so near!"

Mama would then lean down and kiss my forehead, her eyes gentle. "The thread wouldn't have snapped if only he had let the other people climb too, Christian. In fact, that was what God had been hoping for. But because the boy was selfish, he poisoned the thread and made it weak. And that was the real reason why it broke."

I could never forget this story, because it used to haunt me how much the damned boy was close to salvation. But because he was too selfish, he broke the thread that could have led him out of hell. I never did understood that.

After all, it would be years later before I would discover my own thread, and the depth of my own selfishness.

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