Hearts at Home Read Online Free PDF Page B

worthy!”
    â€œYou cannot have her!” Caleb’s voice echoed like thunder through the heavens. “She has been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, and he has clothed her in his righteousness! Now go, you disobedient and rebellious servant!”
    Olympia watched the light quiver before the authority in Caleb’s voice, then it fled away into darkness. Her soul thrilled with a sudden rush of emotion.
    Oh, how wrong she’d been to think she could do anything to prepare for this journey. For the demonic adversary was right—she did doubt, she did fear, and she was not worthy of heaven. The frail strength she had tried to cultivate shriveled to weakness in the onslaught of that gleaming enemy, but Caleb was strong and the One he served even stronger. . . .
    Shivering, she nestled closer to Caleb’s strong frame. “How long will it take?”
    He chuckled softly. “Time does not exist here, dear one. You are still thinking in terms of human reference.”
    â€œBut we’ve been flying for a while, haven’t we?” Instinctively, she looked for her watch, then laughed at the sight of her translucent arm.
    â€œIn the span of earthly time, we’ve just left your bedroom. Annie is kneeling by your side. In a moment, she will call for me . . . and I will answer.”
    Panic surged through her. “You’ll leave me?”
    â€œYou have nothing to fear, Missy.”
    Struck dumb by such authority from the butler who had always been so quiet and subservient, Olympia stared upward as they traversed yet another boundary. The skies brightened to the purest aqua in which a million sparks of diamond light twinkled. In the distance she glimpsed the tall verdant canopies of a rich forest, while in the foreground rose a gleaming temple of the purest white stone.
    A host of angelic messengers greeted them outside a shimmering gate. As the gates opened, she and her escorts passed through on a tide of song that carried them toward an open area where spotless columns stood upon alabaster stairs she could not feel beneath her feet. An assortment of angelic harpists sat upon these steps, playing instruments unlike any she had ever seen or heard. They looked upward as they played, and she followed their gazes and beheld yet more harpists gathered around a throne. Behind the musicians, four astounding creatures sang, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come!”
    Olympia trembled as she beheld the throne of the Almighty, lifted high behind a crystal sea that shimmered with the light of a thousand suns. Waves of glory shone from the throne, and she felt her spirit tremble before the power of the being who sat upon it. Around the throne, scores of angels waved palm branches, and something in her wanted to fall to her knees with these lovely creatures, waving whatever sprig of greenery or feathering she could happen to find.
    â€œLook,” Caleb commanded, and she obeyed. The throne of the Almighty rested upon two pillars, the left bearing inscriptions in many languages, including English. The Creator had carved the word righteousness into the left pillar, while the right bore the word justice . Above the throne hovered a pair of mighty angels, their wings softly stirring the air.
    Suddenly she was transported over the sea, over the harpists, over even the seraphim. She knelt at the foot of the throne, close enough that she could have reached out and touched the all-too-fleshly foot that rested inches from her trembling hands.
    Drawn by a force she could not deny, Olympia lifted her eyes to the One who sat in the center of the universe. She expected a being so bright and powerful that one glance would shatter her into a million atoms, each particle too tiny to ever be of use again, but when her gaze lifted she saw . . . Jesus.
    She saw holiness reflected in his white robe and his gleaming hair. She saw power in the strength of his hands. But when she