The Sign

 By: Kelly McDonald

“It’s time for the Sign”, thought Jophiel. As the angelic figure contemplated his next assignment, he couldn’t help but marvel at what he had been commissioned to do. A glorious event was about to occur, affecting the inhabitants of countless worlds spread far across the cosmos. The divine creator had designed a signal to be given, notifying the mortal inhabitants on these many worlds the beginning of this glorious event. Now Jophiel would start it in motion.

And he knew how critical his execution needed to be. He must trigger the Sign perfectly. On some of those worlds, divinity had simply revealed to their inhabitants that something would appear in their heavens, announcing the event. However, in other worlds, specific secondary events were also scheduled to happen in connection with the Sign. He must perform his own assignment perfectly to match those declared timings.

Jophiel traveled to the physical place in the cosmos where the Sign had been constructed eons ago. He now looked over this austere star system and recalled his earlier discussion with the cosmic creator who had designed this upcoming event.

“See that binary star system?” The creator asked. Jophiel nodded his head in recognition.

“It comprises a white dwarf star, with a smaller dead star revolving around it. The dead star is composed mostly of iron and other heavy elements. You must trigger the Sign by physically forcing the dead star to spiral inward on a collision with its central star, eventually causing a bright explosion.”

“How will I know when to start the event?” Jophiel inquired.

“Trigger it at the exact calculated schedule that I will communicate to you, and all the other events will happen at the right moment across the cosmos.”

Jophiel again nodded in agreement, though he was still contemplating what he would need to do. 

Now, as he reviewed everything, he knew that all the variables had been considered. Jophiel removed a small white stone, his communication device, from within his robe.

 There it was in his stone. He read the keywords: the Sign followed by a number counting down to zero, the creator’s notification of when he should begin. Jophiel raised his arms. When the countdown was reached, he released a wave of divine energy, and his efforts began acting on the dead star, slowing its revolution. At a prescribed point, again signaled through the white stone, Jophiel ceased his effort. Nothing seemed different, but he knew that through this release of energy, he had exerted sufficient pressure on the dead star to decay its revolution around its companion.

After one last inspection of the white dwarf star and its revolving dead companion, now showing some small signs of slowing down, Jophiel disappeared from the stellar system. The execution of the Sign had begun. 

#   #   #

Jophiel appeared at a planet for another assignment he had been given. Though time was meaningless to him, it seemed long ago he had triggered the divine event. The Sign, dazzling light generated from the exploding star, had raced through the cosmos passing many worlds on its outbound travel. No doubt on some of these planets, the inhabitants simply looked up at their sky and observed the blinding stellar blast, followed by a long period of declining brightness. On other worlds, however, it signaled additional events, foretold to those occupants by other angels, like himself, who had predicted the Sign, teaching of its importance to that world. 

Now, he had the task to complete his next assignment, in a distant portion of the cosmos, on a small unassuming world circling uneventfully around its average-sized star. The exploding star system had been positioned far enough away from this planet to create a bright flash of light during one-half of its rotation and then continue as the brightest night time object far into its future. As he neared this first stop on the way to his planetary mission, he could see evidence of civilization—buildings, roads, agriculture, large groups of inhabitants going about their mortal existence. One of his angelic brothers, Haniel, responsible for communicating to this group of inhabitants, appeared next to him.

“Are they ready?” Jophiel inquired.

“Some are,” his angelic companion mused. “But most of these people have ignored the messages that I’ve given to their spiritual leaders. We’ll see what their reactions are soon.” 

As the planet rotated, its central star sank behind the western horizon, normally bringing on nighttime darkness. But the triggered stellar explosion arose in the east, becoming visible, shining brilliantly onto this hemisphere of the planet. Jophiel noticed the inhabitants were pointing up at the sky and many seemed to become very agitated. Their star had now set below their horizon, but there was no darkness on this side of the planet. In this earliest phase of the Sign, its brilliance rivaled that of the planet’s own star. On this side of the planet, he simply observed the execution of the grand event that Haniel had predicted to these inhabitants and taught them what it meant—when their star went down below the horizon, there would be no darkness.

#  #  #

Jophiel materialized on the other side of the planet from where the night without darkness had occurred, just as this hemisphere’s daylight was also drawing to a close. Darkness surrounded a little village of inhabitants that was visible to him. As typical for a growing population, its agricultural economy thrived. Some residents were outside the walls of their village, performing what appeared to be farming duties, attempting to contain a group of native animals during the nighttime hours. They were all looking upward at the Sign that had risen in their east, by now only the brightest star among many in their night’s sky.

Angelic friends were now showing up as well, to fill their supporting role in the events that would occur on this side of the planet.

“Are we all here?” Jophiel finally asked.

“I think we have enough.” Another angel responded.

Jophiel was deeply honored, being selected to lead this upcoming event. For most of his angelic existence, he had performed ‘behind the scenes’ duties, such as the Sign he had triggered. Then, there was that work to protect a special tree by wielding a flaming sword. Usually, no mortal inhabitants had been around to observe his angelic actions when he performed them. But this time it would be different. He didn’t want to detract from the sacredness of this moment and quietly repeated to himself his opening lines, while wiping away a tear from his cheek.

As he drew closer to the little group of farmers, tending their animals and marveling at the beauty of the bright star in their night sky, he revealed his glory to them, and as the sky lit up from his exposed divinity, he could tell by the amazement on their faces that he had startled them. The farmers clustered together; their animals became restless. Then, in his best angelic rendition, voiced in the obscure language of this little population, he spoke:

“Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.”

Suddenly, the entire heavens shone as Jophiel and his divine companions sang praises to this Christ the Lord, whose mortal birth on this planet had been signaled by the Sign.