There was a wealthy kingdom whose people lacked no good thing.
Their tables were always full, their nights were peaceful,
and each lived in the delight of the King,
as children resting in the arms of their Father.
In that kingdom was a house of marvels,
a place built for joy and for the testing of the heart.
And the King said to His children,
‘Enter for a little while,
and learn what it is to strive and to weep,
to hunger and to hope,
that your hearts may taste what this palace cannot give.’
And the children entered gladly,
for they knew the house was only for a moment
and they would soon return to the Father’s halls.
At first they rejoiced in the strangeness of that place.
They marveled at toil and at the sweat on their brows.
They laughed when the wind stung their faces
and when the rain drenched them to the bone.
They shared their crusts with glad hearts
and labored as though playing a great game.
For they said,
‘How wonderful that we may taste this life for a little while!’
But as the days passed,
many forgot where they had come from.
The sound of the King’s music faded from their memory,
and the warmth of His house grew dim.
They began to say,
‘This place is all there is.
We must gather more or we shall have nothing.’
So they quarreled and strove
and laid heavy yokes on one another.
Some cursed their labor, saying,
‘Why must we suffer so?’
Others boasted in their strength
and forced the weaker to carry double loads.
And still others sat in high places and cried out,
‘See how great we have become!’
Though they had built nothing that would last
nor gained anything they could take with them.
Their joy turned to gloom
and their game to torment.
For they had forgotten their true home
and believed the shadows to be the world.
The Overstayed Guests
Now among the people in that house
were those who remembered just enough of the Kingdom
to long for it,
but not enough to understand it.
They said,
‘This place is not our home.
When the King calls us, we shall return with honor.’
Yet they loved the seats of importance in the house of marvels,
and desired to carry their rank
and their trophies
into the world to come.
They waited eagerly for the King’s messenger,
saying,
‘When he comes, he will surely praise our toil
and set us above the others in the Kingdom.’
For they believed the next world to be like this one,
where some sit close to the King
and others far away,
and where honor is measured by scarcity.
But the true Kingdom is a place of abundance,
where all sit beside the King,
and none are greater or lesser,
for none can lose anything to anyone.
When the messenger came,
he spoke plainly, saying:
‘Friends, the Kingdom is not like this house.
There is no richest or poorest there,
no highest or lowest.
All sit beside the King.
All are filled.
All are greeted as beloved children.’
When they heard this,
those who longed for superiority grew angry.
For the messenger’s words stripped their trophies of worth
and their titles of meaning.
And they murmured among themselves:
‘If all are equal there,
then we will not go in.’
So they hardened their hearts
and turned on the messenger,
driving him from the house
and plotting against him.
For they desired a Kingdom of scarcity,
where their fewness could make them great,
rather than a Kingdom of abundance
where all are welcome
and none are first or last.
The Call to Wakefulness
But the King had compassion on the house.
So the messenger cried once more with a loud voice:
‘Children of the King!
Why do you toil as though this house were your prison?
Why do you crush one another
under burdens never laid upon you?
Wake up!
This place is but a moment,
a breath,
a flicker before the dawn!
You belong to another Kingdom—
a Kingdom that does not fail.
Return to the joy you once knew.
Cease your wrangling,
and celebrate this hour for what it is—
a passing adventure before your homecoming.’
Some laughed at him and said,
‘This man is mad.
If we loosen our hands, we shall lose everything.’
Others grew angry,
for his words troubled their pride.
And the house filled with smoke and groaning.
But a few heard his voice and remembered.
They laid down their tools
and wiped the sweat from their brows.
They embraced one another with tears and said,
‘We forgot who we were.
Let us rejoice again,
for our Father is waiting.’
And they followed the messenger
out of that house of marvels
and into the dawn.
“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
For the joy of the King belongs to those
who remember where they came from
and do not mistake the shadow for the world.”