I was in a coffee shop and I saw an old man quietly reading a book in the corner.   A pair of women argued at a nearby table.   One was aged and haggard, her face showed lines from years of frowning.  The other was young, her eyes were puffy, and her tears wet the wood of the table.

“God wants you to give him another change,” the old woman’s shrill voice stung the air.

The young woman stared at the floor, “I can’t, I can’t he has hurt me for the last time.”

“I grow tired of this sludge poisoning the mood,”  his eyes never left the pages as he spoke to the two women.  “God wants?  An arrogant notion indeed…”  he turned the page and  laughed to himself.

“This is none of your business, please don’t interrupt me!  I am doing God’s work!”

“Ahh yes, I see…” his atheistic mind churned behind his steady eyes, as he placed his book on arm of the chair he was sitting in.

Everyone in the coffee shop grew quiet, and listened to the booming roll of the old man’s voice. “I find it interesting, the concept of God.   How is it that those who claim to know and love an all powerful creator, take matters into their own hands?  If there exists an immeasurable amount of power what could humanity possibly add?  I assume you are trying to save a doomed marriage.  I have seen the angry people yelling, killing, and hurting those who would deny their God.  Yet, if in fact the peopled world is the belongings of a Creator, who has the right to disturb or disrupt on behalf of said Creator.  If you believed that which you squawk, your anger would subside, and the only action you would have left to take is the only action you are supposed to take, talk to your Creator.  Yet, you impose your will.  You mettle and wound the weak on God’s behalf.  Show me  your mandates, do you have any documentation of your divine orders?  Who has given you authority over creation?  If you trust and believe as you have said, then perhaps you should wait and watch to see the proof of God in his response to your praying.  Yet you pray, and then you meddle and talk and meddle.  Do you wait for this God of yours to have a chance?   If you are always moving, then perhaps the stage behind the curtain is truly an empty void, but if there is something beyond life, behind the curtain, maybe you should get off of the stage of humanity, and be quiet while the rest of us have a look. Isn’t your job to get people off the streets and into the theater?  You ask me to believe, yet how can I, when you do not believe yourself?

The old man rose to leave, and the angry old woman blocked his path, “The bible is my authority!  You are going to hell!”

He smiled as he slung his coat over his arm, “No my dear, it is 1 in the afternoon, I am going home to take a nap.”

…

Copyright © 2017 Zachary W. Gilbert