---

At the end of time, billions of people were scattered on the vast plain
before God's Throne. Some shrank back from the brilliant light before
them. But many other groups talked heatedly, not cringing with shame,
but with belligerence.

"Can God judge us? How can He know about suffering?" snapped a pert
brunette. She ripped open her sleeve to reveal a tattooed number from a
Nazi concentration camp. "We endured terror ... beating ... torture ...
death!"

In another group an African-American boy lowered his collar. "What
about this?" he demanded, showing an ugly rope burn. "Lynched, for no
crime but being black."

In another crowd there was a pregnant schoolgirl with sullen eyes: "Why
should I suffer?" she murmured. "It wasn't my fault."

Far out across the plain were thousands of such groups. Each had a
complaint against God for all the evil and suffering He had permitted
in His world. How lucky God was to live in Heaven, where all was
sweetness and light, where there was no weeping and fear, no hunger or
hatred, no sickness or sorrow. What did God know of all that human-kind
had been forced to endure in this world? After all, God leads a rather
sheltered sort of life, they said.

So each of these groups sent forth a leader, especially chosen because
they had suffered the most. A Jew, an African-American, a person from
Hiroshima, a horribly deformed arthritic, a thalidomide child, an AIDS
victim.

In the center of the vast plain, these leaders consulted with each
other. At last they were ready to present their case, item by item,
leader by leader, to God. It was rather pertinent.

Before God could be qualified to be their Judge, He must endure what
they had endured. Their decision was that God should be sentenced to
live on earth as a human being, as a man.

Let him be born of the most despised race, a Jew, in poverty-stricken
conditions. Let the legitimacy of his birth be doubted. As a child, let
him be forced to flee as a refugee, and live several years in a foreign
country. Then give him a work to do, and an ideal to uphold that is so
difficult that even his own family will think him out of his mind when
he tries to do it. Let him be betrayed by his closest colleague, into
the hands of those who hate him. Let him face false charges, be tried
by a prejudiced Jury, and convicted by a cowardly judge.

At the last, let him see what it means to be terribly, terribly alone -
forsaken of all his friends. Let him be tortured. Then let him die.

Let him die the most excruciating, and humiliating death possible,
before a taunting, reviling crowd, that not only verified his death but
contributed to it.

As each leader announced his portion of the sentence, loud murmurs of
approval went up from the whole assembled throng. When the last leader
had finished pronouncing his part of God's sentence, there was a long
silence.

No-one uttered another word. Nobody moved.

For suddenly, everybody knew that God had already served His sentence.



- (Author Unknown)





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