Holy Land

A god who lived among the people is destined to return someday... only there's something that the people don't quite understand...

Holy Land

Once upon a time there was a kingdom that had once believed in a god who enforced strict rules upon them. He had proclaimed that these rules could bring inner peace. They once believed in him, but many had completely ceased belief altogether. Many more thought that still believing was foolish. 

Still, a small fraction of the people held onto their belief in the god. They claimed that if there came a time where enough of the citizens believed again, the god would descend to their land and dwell with them once again, as it was said that he once did. 

This small fraction worked tirelessly to keep beliefs about the god alive. They would send preachers from city to city, attempting to garner a larger and larger following for the god. After many years of working to rekindle the dormant beliefs of the people, there came a point when about half of the people over all the land were believers. 

When this half of the people all gathered together in one place, the miracle that they had hoped for finally came. Their god descended from the clouds and landed among the people. As he did, all those who believed in him packed closely together around him, while those who continued to disbelieve despite the spectacle, kept their distance. At that moment, a mighty quake shook the ground and a violent cracking sound was heard. 

The place where the believers had huddled to their god had split off from the rest of the land, and was floating away like its own island, away from the land where the non-believers stood. This isolated land became like a heavenly paradise for the believers and their god, gone away from all opposition to them. 

These believers obviously lived very happily, thinking they’d found immortal peace. The god would often smile joyfully at his loyal subjects, whose belief in him had brought him back to life. 

But one day, just for a moment as the people celebrated, their god separated himself from them and walked to the edge of the island. He looked with his all seeing eyes across the water to the land they had broken off from. Then he looked even further beyond that, to the land which thousands of years ago had been broken in two as well. He looked further and further across the world, seeing the progressively larger lands that had all been divided in two throughout history. This island was the smallest yet and he knew the next one would only be smaller still.

He turned towards his people once again thinking silently to himself, “How long will it be before this land full of people become angry with me and seek to kill me? How long will it be, before my world becomes so small that I am the only one standing on it?”

Author's Note

Number 31 of the No One Special Fairy Tales, Copyright No One Special 2011.
This particular tale is not meant to be a commentary on a specific religion, but meant to be a sort of morbid interpretation of the "god summoning" plot you see in various stories. (I myself am working on such a story, however this is not how it ends.) For any one who was confused, it's basically saying that the people think the god lived with them once, and they summoned him back again and now will be happy forever. In truth, he has lived and died with his people over and over again in a vicious cycle as they turn on him, and in turn, each time "paradise" becomes smaller.

Reviews

[Omegax45]

It's very deep, showing the insight of what many leaders must feel during their reign. I didn't get much of the splitting islands paragraphs, but when the God spoke of his feelings, I finally got it. Very good.