When They Finally Knew

100 yards out he knew they would leave the gravel road to go flying off down into the ponderosas

as she was read the test results she felt the thoughtless life she had always known slip away forever

while they were lowering her father into the earth she realized suddenly that she was next in line

when he could no longer jog he became aware that his possibilities were forever strictly decreasing

glancing up from her call she saw the oncoming semi just before it intruded deep within her vehicle

seeing that bright light he still had one moment to remember that it meant he was passing away

helping to inter his firefighting brother he gained a terminal empathy that would never leave him

as the plane tumbled so rapidly to earth each one of them had far too long to imagine the conclusion

though they said he died instantly they could never know exactly how his consciousness had fled

for several seconds after his decapitation his eyes still saw & his brain still functioned – And he knew

the sensation of a crushing weight on his chest induced a well-founded & prophetic sense of doom

T-boned & launched from his cycle he felt cool air on his helmetless head before striking the pole

As her car filled with water she struggled to find a way out in the rapidly-shrinking air pocket

They saw the flash as a suicide bomber was remotely detonated directly in front of their tea stand

He watched, stunned, as the shooter took out several of his friends and then turned towards him

The morphine slowly overtook him and he knew this would be his last trip under – and it was OK

Grandmother grew quite calm as she somehow involuntarily accepted that her time had come at last

As a 3 year old, the approach of death under anesthesia was just another in a series of tiring dreams

The old dog lifted a tired head just in time to see the muzzle flash of his owner’s shotgun in his face

After months of unremitting pain he realized that it would never cease - at least while he was alive

Things slowly faded out given the uncontrolled bleeding induced by the IED which had taken his legs

She found herself looking down from above the table upon which they worked so feverishly upon her

After the shooting he lay surrounded by homies but the sound of the approaching ambulance dimmed

She did notice as something snapped inside her chest as the burly EMT began performing CPR on her

He’s now a part-time God

Look, He still knows all about everything but it seems like these days He’s just not online all the time

His individual plans for each of us are still in effect but maybe He’s not monitoring 24x7x365 currently

OK, it’s an issue…But, His customer support teams in our world are busy, trying to pick up the slack

These earthly minions must now rationalize ever more horrific events as part of His Mysterious Ways

I’m thinking maybe He might be like semi-retired what with all the awful stuff that’s been happening

At times you get gospel music & ‘Your prayer is very important to us…’ during our personal dialogues

Even commoners can plainly see that His omnipotence isn’t always working everywhere, all the time

But His priests, rabbis, preachers & imams do remain clueless as to the cause of these long outages

Maybe there are big issues in distant galaxies, but then, that never affected His omnipresence before

If it were anybody else, I’d have to at least ask if there might be some pay for looking the other way

For instance, greedy CEOs are living like kings til 90 while little girls get gunned down in classrooms

Could it be possible that some of this results from outsourcing portions of His work to like demigods?

Make no mistake, there are still times when we just know He’s been there, watching over us in grace

But: Scientific studies show that Divine Intervention is down some 60-70% since the last Dark Ages :)

However, the price of eternal salvation has not dropped at all during all of these last 5000 years

In the meantime, the devil’s heathen idols have picked up huge numbers of apostates, worldwide

Many Conservatives argue that it’s simply divine retribution & not merely His inattention to our ways

Perhaps that does indeed explain the success of those violent, heretical, caliphate-seeking jihadis

But why would the increasing numbers of poor, unwanted & abused children be punished from birth?

Is it possible that His merciful grace is capped at under 8 billion souls on this one small blue planet?

None of His agents of any stripe will comment on His impossible, but obvious, intermittent absences

Yet, certainly we hear increasingly strident calls to greater faith to soothe His possible ire with us

The amoral among us have posited that divine record-keeping has possibly been reduced as well…

Still - The true faithful continue to toe the line, ever fearful of losing the promise of eternal paradise

There’s a movement to part-time faith and many others now say they worship at home, in private

There are also many reports of sporadic power of prayer outages in many areas across the globe

Yet, many of His franchisees here on earth just go on about their business like nothing has happened

For, as ever, many declare that the richness of His plan shall only be revealed in the fullness of time

Perhaps it’s merely a work slowdown intended to focus attention on our blessing-entitled mindset

Surely America’s decreasing exceptionist indulgences are directly linked to lack of a divine presence

In any case, our politicians incessant imperative that ‘God Bless America’ seems far less effective

Maybe it’s just some kind of an auto-pilot malfunction or another type of heavenly technical glitch

There may be a backup in processing all the martyrs & innocent people we have sent along lately

Possibly He’s getting on towards retirement and has simply decided to slow down a little bit

Or, perhaps He wants to spend more time with His family and His other interests – as outed CEOs say

After all, what are the joys of 24x7x365 attention to every atom in the universe & all our petty lives?