But I can see now that falling in love has a lot more in common with living than it ever does death. You may certainly choose whom you fall in love with. Destiny may point you in the trajectory, but it is ultimately your will, your strong desire that allows someone to graft themselves onto your heart.
I allowed the enemy to graft himself onto my heart so very securely until he shattered it, stopped it from beating altogether.
Perhaps I should have yielded to destiny; perhaps the one who wove my fate together knew best after all. Had I never strayed from the path designed for me, my people, my very life would still be mine. But I strayed. I looked the enemy in his cobalt eyes and nodded with approval while he burned down the planet under the guise of our love. And in turn, my people and I have paid the ultimate price.
Love. As soon as I arrived on Paragon, my world bloomed with its beautiful never-ending ache. I would have given all of my blood to my enemies. They could have had it completely—if I knew it would satisfy them—if I could live without it. But I knew the end of the story before it ever began. I had to choose love. And for this, I would surely die.
And I did.
It is that time in my existence—a time for love and a time for death. Fate had intertwined the two, bereaved of any mercy. But it is not the architecture of my being as I once believed, nor does it rule the infrastructure. The pillars of my life may have been established long ago—the blueprint written in my bloodlines, but my destiny, and that of my people, is in my hands and I will find a way to heal them both.
Fate had set a trio of hearts before me, and I greedily took them all.
And now the entire world must pay for my foolishness.
But He calls to me.
They hung Him on a cross at Calvary, stripped Him of his life just the way they stripped me of mine. But He calls to me, sings over me, commands I come alive. He is resurrecting, restoring all that I am, all that my people are.
Not entropy, nor death, nor a single wicked heart can prevail over what He proclaims.
The true King has spoken.
The true King is alive.
He bursts forth from victory.
And so will I.
A New Beginning
Candace
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
The earth was waste and void—and darkness was in the face of the deep, and the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said let there be light and there was light. God was pleased with the light and divided light from the darkness. God called the light, day, and the darkness, night. Then God divided firmament from the waters and called the expanse above the water heaven. Evening passed and morning came, marking the second day. Then God sprouted vegetation on dry ground, every kind of seed-bearing plant and trees with seed-bearing fruit. Evening passed and morning came, marking the third day. Then God said, “Let lights appear in the sky to separate day from night.” He made a larger one to rule the day and a smaller one to govern the night. God saw that it was good and evening passed and morning came, marking the fourth day. Then God said, “Let the waters swarm with every kind of sea creature, and the sky with every kind of bird—each producing after its own kind.” God saw that it was good, and evening passed and morning came, marking the fifth day. Then God said, “Let the earth produce every sort of animal, each producing offspring of the same kind—livestock, small animals that scurry along the ground, and wild animals.” And God saw that it was good.
Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on earth, and the small animals that scurry, along the ground.”
So God created human beings in His own image. In the image of God He created them. Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and multiply. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”
Then God said, “Look! I have given you every seed-bearing plant throughout the earth and all the fruit trees for your food. And I have given every green plant as food for all the wild animals that scurry along the ground—everything that has life.” And that is what happened. Then God looked over everything He had made, and He saw that it was very good. And evening passed and morning came, marking the sixth day.
So the creation of the heavens and earth and everything in them was completed. On the seventh day God had finished His creation, so He rested from all His work. And God blessed the seventh day and He declared it holy, because it was the day He rested from all his work of creation. This is the account of the heavens and the earth as it will forever be recorded in the book of Genesis.
And preceding all of this, in the very beginning, was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
And together the Word, God the Father, and the Spirit united the kingdom in the heavenlies and there was a feast as we pondered this new creation, what it could mean, what it could become—how beautiful it was, perfectly created with love by the master Himself.
There is a precipice in Ahava, past the crystal lake, just beyond the Falls of Virtue that affords a magnified view of the jewel called Earth. And all the created beings in the heavenlies—the angelic messengers, the seraphim, the cherubs, the Sectors, the Fems, the Caelestis, along with the beasts that rest at the throne—gathered as we gaze upon its beauty.
“Attention!” my voice chimes out over the expanse. “I, Your Grace, Candace, would like to announce that all magnificence was created by, and for, the Master,” I say to the created beings gathered nearby. “It is for His great pleasure that those creatures called humans are in existence. He alone is worthy to receive glory and honor and power, for He created all things, and by His will they were created and have their being. They will have the ability to intimately know the Master, to love, honor, and worship Him. He will take man and crown him with glory and honor. They will have free will, and those that taste and see that their heavenly Father is good shall call him friend.”
There was Adam and there was Eve. Naked in the garden in all perfection, in perfect union with God. And then there was the serpent—a lying spirit whom they called Demetri. The serpent enticed the woman to partake of the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil from which they were forbidden to eat. The man also partook, and they knew sin. They were ashamed of their nakedness, and they hid from their heavenly Father.
God in all of His grand mercy slaughtered a large animal, and they ate the meat for food and used the fur for clothing. Then sin and death fell upon mankind. Because the serpent enticed the woman with the forbidden fruit, and she, in turn, gave to the man. Thus Adam and Eve were evicted from the Garden of Eden.
Angels were set up to guard the entry to that earthly paradise so that Adam and Eve would never set foot there again. And along with sin and death, a curse fell upon the whole Earth, thorns grew on the most beautiful of flowers, and the ground was hard and dry. Man would have to labor to produce food, and woman would have great pains when bringing forth a child.
