CHAPTER 1 RECAP:


Ryan Anderson was abused his entire life. One that was tragically cut short by his father burning him alive in a barn fire. Ryan's spirit wings it way to Paradise aboard the Glory Train.

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The Glory Train sped on, rapidly picking up speed as it travelled. When it finally came to a thunderous, screeching halt, the sonic boom of the brakes on its engine snapped Ryan out of his slumber.

Excitedly, he scampered to the nearest window he could find. He wanted a real close up view of what Paradise looked like. Oh, he had learned a lot of wonderful things about it in his Sunday School class but just knew it had to be even more fantastic in living color.

The first thing that caught the boy's sparkling diamond blue eyes were the Pearly Gates. Big and wide, standing like a beacon in the night. Ryan could not believe the amazing sight he beheld. Then he noticed they were closed tightly and he felt a twinge of deep disappointment settle over him.

For a moment in time, he glared out the window, and watched the gates open for each new soul that had found eternal bliss, meander through them. Then, just as suddenly as they opened, they closed again.

Ryan could not wait to take his turn in that line. He wanted nothing more than to walk the streets of glistening gold he saw laying on the other side of the Pearly Gates.

All at once the loud, anguished cry of the next soul cast into the lake of fire snapped Ryan back to reality. He certainly hoped that would not be his fate. It couldn't be. Not after the life of Hell he had lived through on Earth, could it? What if he wasn't good enough to make it through those gates? He just had to be.

The thought terrified Ryan and, quickly, he pushed them far out of the corners of his mind. Surely, he hadn't been bad enough to be excommunicated from Paradise, had he?

Ryan continued watching the wonderment of the Pearly Gates opening and closing with every soul that approached them and made it inside. He steadied his nerves and climbed down the exit stairs off the train.

Then he took his place at the very end of the line, which was rather long one. The boy watched as they continued disembarking from off the Glory Train. It seemed strange to him how all those souls could have been on that train and he had not encountered one other person the entire time? As the line slowly approached the Pearly Gates, Ryan hoped he did not take a plummet he knew he did not want to take.

Slowly the line moved closer and closer to getting him to the Gate Opener who seemed to be the one controlling the gate. He had to be brave and hope they opened when his turn came to enter them. Still, he could not help but wonder what if they did not? Perish the thought.

"Next!" Ryan heard the Gate Opener call out loudly.

He couldn't believe it was actually true. He had made it to the entrance of the Pearly Gates and imagined all the fantastic things he was about to spend eternity exploring.

"Your name. What is your name?" the Gate Opener wanted to know.

Ryan noticed how he was dressed in a snow white robe that cascaded over his entire body and could barely audibly answer his question.

"I'm Ryan Anderson," he finely uttered in response, speaking in a clear tone.

The Gate Opener surveyed the Book of Life. Once, twice, three times. "Oh no. This is not good, not good, not good!" he exclaimed out loud.

Ryan felt the entire weight of his body shift from one foot to the other and back again.

"What's the matter?" he slowly managed to ask the Gate Opener who was still frantically surveying his roll.

"T-t-t-this can not be. It simply can not be," he was told.

"What?" Ryan a bit more strongly asked him.

The Gate Opener glanced back at Ryan. He looked him up and down. Then back up again. He replied, "No, no, no, no, no. This can not be. It just can not be. You're not supposed to be here for another seventy Earth years. Y-y-y-you're way too early."

Ryan forced himself to remain as calm as he could be. He had made it all the way to the Pearly Gates. He definitely did not want to blow an eternity in Paradise now.

"What do you mean I'm too early?" he wanted to know fighting back the tears he felt welling up in his eyes.

The Gate Opener sadly shook his head, that was as snow white as the robe he wore, and said, "It means I can not let you in. I-I-I-I'm sorry."

Dejected like never before in his young life Ryan found himself looking down for a moment into the fiery pit. A scene he forced from his mind with all his might.

The Gate Opener noticed the boy's actions and soothingly said, "Don't worry. It doesn't mean you're going down there either. That is certainly not the place for anyone. Let alone a chosen one like you."

"Well, if I can't enter through the gate, and I'm not going down there, then what is going to happen to me?" Ryan wondered out loud, unable to comprehend this limbo he was now in.

"I don't know. I don't know. I don't know," the Gate Opener responded telling him, "we've never had this happen before."

Ryan was completely befuddled. The Gate Opener began another frantic search of his notes, paused a mere moment, and said, "Aw, yes. Here it is. Just what I was looking for."

Quickly running out of patience, although he did not want to do so, Ryan asked the Gate Opener, "What? What are you going to do to me that hasn't already been done?"

The Gate Opener studied the boy briefly before replying gently with, "You have to go back where you came from."

"Go back to where I came from?" Ryan questioned him now not caring if tears did stream down his face.

As gently as he could say the words, the Gate Opener told him, "Rule Number 3.681.947 clearly states any soul that arrives at the Pearly Gates before their appointed time must return to their former life, and do three good deeds, before entrance through the Pearly Gates is permitted."

Devastation did not even begin to describe the crushed countenance of the lad now forbidden to enter the Pearly Gates. He could not believe what the Gate Opener had told him. And, he certainly wanted nothing to do with returning back to his former life on Earth.

"I'm sorry, son. The rules are the rules," the Gate Opener sympathetically tried to tell him. He glanced over at the Glory Train, then cut his glance back to Ryan, and said, "If you hurry you can still catch the train's return trip. But, you must go back."

Without another word Ryan somehow found the strength to force the steps it took to walk over to where the train he had ridden to Paradise was now waiting at the station. He grabbed an agonizing hold of the handrail, and with each step much more difficult to climb than the previous one, managed to board the train. He found a seat, not that he wanted one, and plopped down in it.

As the train departed the station there remained nothing of the boy. He was a deflated, defeated, ball of nothingness. And, again he wondered how could he have made it all the way to the Pearly Gates only to be returned back to his life of abuse on Earth?

Doing three good deeds to gain admission through the Pearly Gates was the very last thought on his mind.

The Glory Train was well on its way back to Earth for its next load. And, Ryan had no way of knowing what events were transpiring back where he had just come from.

But, the foundations of Paradise were being shaken. The Maker was not a happy camper.