The Angel Journeys

Part 5

Michael considered his own creation as he moved toward the Depths where his brother dwell. It was a far distance to travel even for Michael, the strongest and fastest Archangel created. Humans thought the Kingdom to be in the sky and the Depths to be under the surface of the earth. Neither was true, their minds could not comprehend this truth. When the order was given to separate Lucifer from the Kingdom, the place chosen by the One with the knowledge of life, was the place in creation furthest from the Kingdom. Spiritual and physical universes apart, as opposed to above the sky or in the earth’s core. The distance from the Kingdom and He who made all, was the punishment of Lucifer.

On the day of his creation, Michael was instantly aware and fully empowered. Humans believe the One with all knowledge, to have rested on the seventh day of creation. It was on that day He created their protectors, the Guardians of man. Guardian angels are a unique creation Michael thought, as they are never without pain, whether it be physical, emotional or spiritual. Their first day free of pain would come when humans could no longer be harmed, for it was their harm that caused the Archangel’s pain, inescapable and constant.

The heart of Michael told his history. This record upon the heart is unique to all Guardians, not just Michael, though no angel’s heart held the breadth and depth of his pain. In truth no other angel could survive it. Michael’s heart ripped and bled when man suffered. The surface of his heart bore millenniums of witnessed suffering, of missed chances to prevent, to intervene. What the Archangel did not know, Michael could not stop.

The anatomy of the Archangel's heart was designed to increase its love of humans. When the bleeding would stop for a time, the dried blood would form a skin around the angel’s heart. Each skin of blood would cause the heart to grow in size, as it grew in size, so did its capacity to love man and feel their pain. Michael thought it to be both a vicious and efficient design. So it was by the wounds of the heart, caused by the senseless suffering of man, that the Angel's love of man was perpetuated as was his torture. Though Michael suffered greatly he accepted this as an intended part of whom he was created to be, by the One who created all. Accepted it,until now.

On Michael’s heart there were many scarred over wounds and thick skins of blood. One in the center was set apart by its size and depth. If he were killable, by any except the One who created him, the events that caused this scar would have ended him. It occurred on the day he put down the rebellion, and the will of Him who wills all, was that Lucifer be brought to the Depths, but allowed to exist. Michael remembered the horror he felt, and the horror that came as the One who knows all, charged Michael with this duty. It would be his mission to imprison his brother in the Depths, and he did so obediently as the leader of the Guardians, the Archangel of the kingdom.

On that day, the day the Archangel bound his brother and journeyed with him to the Depths, Michael felt the flesh ripping from his heart. It ripped because Lucifer created to be his equal in leading the Guardians to protect man would now be separated from the Kingdom and from Michael. It tore because of the suffering of man that would occur from Lucifer’s influence upon them. Lucifer would use man to inflict pain upon the One who created him, He who banished him. Michael knew his brother’s mind. Lucifer hoped that the pain of man would succeed in altering the plan of creation, succeed where his rebellion against the kingdom had failed, failed due to the powerful Archangel that now journeyed him from the Kingdom. Lucifer believed the plan to be flawed, and the Planner flawed. This was his crime.

When the task was done, Michael’s heart, now nearly torn in two bled for a human century. The angel’s blood overflowed draining from his mouth, ears and eyes as he awaited the healing that would come, knowing the pain would never fully cease. For eternity he would carry the scourging knowledge that his brother though not dead, existed in the Depths. His massive wings became matted with blood that only the tears from those that dwell in the kingdom could wash away. He lay in his own tears and blood writhing in pain, beginning to scar, as he experienced the separation of his brother and the knowledge of man’s suffering to come.

On that day the Author of life sent angels’ to comfort the mangled Archangel,still more powerful then all, and relay the message that this too was part of the plan of creation. It may have brought some comfort to Michael then, but it did not now. Now as Michael neared the end of that same journey, made only once before, the words rang out again, “You have doubts”,cried Lucifer. The Archangel Michael felt the truth of his brother’s words as he neared the entrance to the Depths, as he laid eyes upon the creature that had once been his brother,it cried out once more,its words tore at Michael's heart. It said,"Our doubts are one".

He who made them both male and female, He who is Omnipresent, watched.