R. Leo Olson - Sojourning With Angels: The Rise of Zazriel

Grand Rapids, Michigan is a real place but the characters, faith communities and businesses in this story are fictitious. Any resemblance to any real person, faith community or business should be dismissed as coincidence due to the commonness of such things.

Copyright 2011 by R. Leo Olson

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, inquire at www.faithandfiction.com .

ISBN SOFTCOVER 978-0983810605

ISBN 10: 0983810605

eBook ISBN: 978-0-9838106-1-2

http://www.rleoolson.com

To Emily, my lovefloating you like a cloud

But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him.

-The prodigal sons elder brother- Luke 15:28

CONTENTS

I am a watcher. Therefore, I watch.

And I have watched it rain for four straight days and the flowers can drink no more! You remember to water the wild crocuses of the field but have forgotten me. Havent you had enough to drink, my little purple friends? Here we sit in the desert. You are drowned by the rain, and I am downcast with the heavy clouds of memories.

Theyre not here anymore, my little crocuses, but I can still envision them. Twenty watchers, my brothers, slowly orbited each other, looked into each others eyes and shared unspeakable lustful thoughts. They devised a most evil plan in the lunar light, above Mount Sinai that night. It was an evening much like this one. Why did they do it, you ask? Oh, I dont know why, my flowering friends, but they did.

Come, let us make a pact together. United we will stand, Semjaza said. At first, he was hesitant in speech but gained confidence as they all joined him, assuming the risk of judgment.

Of course, I interjected at their unholy communion! As you would have, if a patch of your kind spoke such things against the Creator. No, we cannot go against the Most High! I told them.

Azazel, my friend, came close to my face. The Almighty One has left us to do what we want, he said. Lucifer gained a kingdom for his rebellion and so will we. We will add to their knowledge of good and evil, and they will think they are like the Most High. He smiled. Then we can take their daughters, satisfy our lusts, subdue the earth, and multiply it with our own seed!

Disgusting, isnt it? Why did they not listen to me? I constantly think about those days, and how I shouldve done more. But I am left here to watch, disgraced by association. At least I have you. Yes, a field of crocuses to keep me company. Oh, woe is me!

I watched as they divided their knowledge, taught men all the secrets of angelic culture, and then ravished the daughters of men. What could I do to stop them?

I just watched like a flower of the field when they bore the giants, Nephilim, evil hybrids, fashioned in neither the image of God nor man. Think of them like ravenous vines violently sprouting in your field, strangling your kind, the lilies, the wild tulips even the tufts of grass. They destroyed all things created good by the Ancient of Days. They subdued the whole earth with reckless abandon and defiled it. I watched it all.

I should have begged for mercy when Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and Gabriel came to execute the most terrible judgment on my brothers. His ways are sovereign and just, but is the punishment too severe? I dared to ask. Why didnt I say more?

Michael stared at me, thinking something. I can still see his eyes filled with tears as he held his mighty fiery sword of death. But he offered me no response. He and Raphael spoke for a moment. I still wonder what they discussed. It doesnt matter, though. For with the same force as Lucifer was cast down from the highest heavens, they cast some of my brother watchers into dark caverns deep in the earth. One cavern is just over that mountain range to the North, probably covered with crocuses, like you.

Azazels plea for help still echoes in my memory even now. I watched Raphael bind his hands and feet and encompass him with jagged rocks on every side. He is still entombed in total darkness.

I watched as the four mighty angels hunted down the rest of my brothers, uprooting them like trees and imprisoning them in the nether regions. Who can fight against them? Who can reason with Divine judgment? Surely not I, nor you.

I watched time pass until it was the six hundredth year of Noahs life, in the second month, the seventeenth day, in the evening. I was sitting among the flowers, like I am now, when the rain began. The land mass split apart and the waters of the deep were angry with the wrath of the Most High. I hovered in the firmament begging for mercy. Leviathan devoured most of the Nephilim in their attempts to withstand the torrents. Some survived, as well as the ark of image bearers, sealed by the Almighty. That is mercy, I guess?

Yet I am left here, mournful with memory, watching as generations upon generations pass. They pick you to decorate their homes but cannot see me. No one sees me anymore. The creatures that bear the Image of the Divine are so similar, yet as different as their names: the Hattians, the Akkadians, the Hittites, the Assyrians, the Greeks and the Romans. To this day, my little friends, I do not fully understand them. The last to make use of this rubble were the Laodiceans. But that clan has long been spat out by the Almighty, and now this land is forgotten by the Turks, a lonely place covered with you. Yes, I am a watcher and I have watched for millennia.

Thru the intercessions of the Bodiless Powers, Lord, save us.

- Eastern Orthodox Monday prayers honoring divine angels

Whos here? Reveal yourself! I shouted. The Archangel Raphael revealed himself and stood before me in his full angelic splendor. I bowed down, in the field of crocuses before him, but could not take my weary eyes off him. He was one of the most beautiful creatures in the heavens. He was magnificent to behold up close, holy, powerful and dangerous, but good. As he stood before me his transformational beauty radiated divine energy into my being and enlivened my dull purple feathers. I knew from this that he had come from the presence of the seraphim who continuously adore the Ancient of Days on the throne.

His wings were half opened, cupped around him, inviting me closer. As I approached I noticed the ornate name crest around his neck. He bore scars, injuries from past battles, and the most curious weaponry was girded about his belt, pouches of powder and fishery instruments. I wondered why the angel in charge of all guardian angels would call on my kind, after the Nephilim, whose spirits torment the image bearers to this day. I had long been resigned to my fate of watching over this region of ruins.

Master, bless, I said.

Rise, he spoke in my mind. You have been found faithful in watching this region.

Its in ruins and forgotten. Only the stones cry out now.

Glory to God in the highest, watcher, for He has watched you and not forgotten your faithful obedience, as was not shown by your kind in ages past.

I was silent before him.

He has another message for you. You are to be a guardian of a yet-to-be-born image bearer. He will be like an anointed one, and the aerial demons will try to destroy him and trap him in their terrible toll houses.

Master, may His will be done on earth as it is in heaven, but I lack knowledge concerning guardianship of an individual image bearer. I have been here among the rocks for so long, I confess, I am unfamiliar with those tortuous nether regions of the aerial demons, and the ways they pervert the cultures of the children of the Resurrection.