Today

This story is about a young man who goes through the horrors of the rapture, and learns about God throughout the story.

Today.

            Today is the day. Nothing I have done in the past matters. Today is all I can think about.

            Graduation.

            I have been waiting for this day since day one. All my friends have been right there with me, and today is the day we are finally through with college. It has been the hardest 6 years of my life. Learning to be a physical therapist while managing a child, a wife, and playing college baseball has not been easy. By a long shot.

            I roll out of bed and wake up my roommate, Drake. He is one of those people that like the idea of being organized, but never gets around to it. It bothers me mostly because I like the idea of organization and get around to it. I go to shake him awake, and as my hand presses down into the blankets, I realize he is no longer here.  He must have left early.

            I look around our dorm room. Clean, fresh-smelling, and dark. I decide to hop in the shower. Our bathroom is pretty cramped. I turn the water on and wait for the water to get hot. As I do, I go over what happened yesterday. The craziest freaks in school were talking about the apocalypse. They have made the predictions thousands of times, how the world will end when this happens, but it never does. The first few times people believed them, but it got to the point where people thought it sounded bogus. Today, apparently, is the day that the “Rapture” is supposed to happen. I hadn’t ever heard of this before until recently. It is the theory that God will take his church to heaven and leave the rest of us in chaos. I hadn’t ever thought about religion or any of that until yesterday. They made a pretty convincing argument that the Rapture would occur today, saying that on the 77^th eclipse, The Rapture would occur. Now as I stand under the boiling hot water of the shower, I think about what the world would be like if the Rapture occurred. It obviously hasn’t happened today; someone would have busted into our room and either warned us, robbed us, or killed us. But what would happen, say, if a Christian were in a car, and the rapture occurred. The cars behind it would slam into it. I don’t even want to think about if a Christian were to be flying a plane during the Rapture. At least it is interesting to think about.

            I get out of the shower, put clean clothes on, and fix my hair. I need to go eat breakfast, and my watch tells me we are to be at the graduation ceremony in 3 hours. I run my hand through my hair and head down to the lobby. But I don’t even make it there.

******

            “Medic! Over here!” one shouts. Yelling, screaming, pain surrounds me. There are bodies everywhere. More importantly, blood everywhere. I make it out of the building, intending to search for Drake. Then I remember: He wasn’t in his bed. His bible was open. He never gets up early. I jump in my car and head to the nearest church. No one is there except a few, crying out to the ceiling, “Where are they? What happened?” And now a new word replaces my previous thoughts: Rapture.

******

            Driving was a terrible idea. I end up ditching my old box of a car, not worth the paint left on it. I decide to head back to campus on foot, no more than a 10 minute walk. When I get there, someone informs me of good news and bad news. The good news: someone started an online search program. If someone you know is missing, search them on this website and their whereabouts will be indicated to you. The bad news: Drake had been raptured. He was gone. Forever.

******

            I search the names of all my friends. The status of all of them falls into the raptured category. I am on my own, and I know exactly what to do. I run and grab Drakes bible, only to find our room robbed. My safe and Drakes bible were the only two things that were left untouched. I was grateful that my money and Drake’s bible were left, because at this point, those were the only two things that mattered. I grab his bible, stuck it in my backpack along with a set of clothes and my money, and headed back to the church.

            I enter and am immediately comforted by the sheer number of people. One of them finds me and, after introduction conversation, invites me to a bible study. I accept of course.

            He asks if I was familiar with the church. I said no. I intend to now, and all I can do at this point is hope and pray �" another unfamiliar word to me �" that God will provide acceptance to those who ask. We enter the study and begin immediately. I learn that everyone there had already been baptized and were devoted followers of Christ after they learned they had not made the cut of the Rapture. They knew so clearly what was happening, and after reading the bible, I understood their fear. I would go to hell, and I would have eternal pain if I didn’t accept God. I knew what I had to do. I spent the five hours learning, praying, reading, and most of all, asking questions. I learned that I needed to repent now, because if I didn’t, I may walk out in the street, get pummeled by a car, and never see God’s mercy. I spoke up and asked if they could baptize me before something terrible happened. They told me to wait in the living room while someone got up and started to fill up the bath. I believed, all of the sudden, that God was behind this. I believed that I needed his salvation to enter his kingdom, and most of all, I believed that Jesus was his son and that, for the rest of my short life, I would be an undivided follower of him. This is what had to be done, I tell myself.

******

            “Do you accept Jesus and God into your heart?” One of them asks.

            “Yes.” I say.

            “Do you believe that Jesus is the son of God, and that God is the eternal creator of this universe?”

            “Yes,” I reply.

            “I now baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,” He replies to my reply.

            I am put under water for just a second, and then emerge. I emerge out of the water a new person, a new being, and tell myself that the most important events in history, including the Rapture and my decision to accept Christ, all happened today.

Author's Note

Guys, I want you to know that I do not necissarily believe that the rapture is the way God will take his church, I just thought it might be a good story line.