I had so many questions. Was this why the voices cried out? Had they found their message?

Was Gabriel here to show me his mercy, as some traditional Christians would have you believe? Or was he here to be my reckoning? My personal Horseman?

“Oh, Faith,“ Gabriel whispered, pulling me tightly into his embrace. “Is this what your faith has come to?“ The rough slide of his question felt coarse against my already frazzled nerves.

Had it? I pondered this a moment while the warm, rich scent of earth and wind enveloped me. The flutter and rush of celestial wings took us higher, mankind and all of its entrapments falling fast away. Perhaps it didn’t matter what state my faith was in. Gabriel was here to bring me a message. Of that, I was certain. Its meaning is what I feared.

Who could blame me? Personally, I was soul weary. Faithfully spent, if you will. I’d been running for so long from the things that haunted me, battling the darkness of others for so long, that I’d never really stopped long enough to look at myself. To look at what I needed. To consider what God needed from me, and what I needed to heal the darkness inside myself. Maybe Gabriel could show me the way?

“Fear not, Faith Savage. For etched in the Book of Life, you’ll find your name. It is written that you have favor with God.“

I blinked back his comment as it settled against me like one more weight. “Wait a minute. What?“ I felt the wonder and shock of his statement scurry over my already fragile nerves. “Who wrote that I’m favored, Gabriel?“

Where did angels receive their messages? Was it direct from God? Did God himself write it down? Or did He order someone else to do it for Him? Was God up on his Twitter account? I must have missed the tweet, and I certainly didn’t get a text. Was that something he could Instagram?
If that was the case, then the Book of Life was real. Wasn’t it? But were we all written in it? Was every little detail of our lives scrawled within? Every step we’d walked or would walk, regardless of the consequence, turned and penned? The good. The bad? And what if we altered our path? Did we truly have free will? Or was free will written into it as well? And what of the unbelievers? What about their stories? Their choices?
“Calm yourself, Faith. There is time enough for explaining. Plenty of time,“ Gabriel assured me, a smirk riding his rough features. Light danced in his startling green eyes. “Come, look.“ He spread his right arm out before him, holding me tightly against him with the other. “Let me share with you a story,“ he whispered.