Days passed as the two siblings awaited their parents’ return, and the mysterious vision lingered in Ezra's thoughts. Subtle reminders came – a warm breeze, the sound of running water. He began dismissing the experience until one morning, as the first rays of dawn kissed the sky, Eliana tugged on his shirt. He turned to see his sister standing tall and wide-eyed. Lingering still between the dream realm and real world, Ezra expected some something would surely demand him leave the comfy warmth of his bed, but he gave in and met eyes with his noona.
"Ezra?” Ella’s determined face confirmed his anxiety. She was ready to do another big something. The gentle excitement in her eager smile was contagious though, and Ezra mustered the strength to sit up.
“Yeah?” He asked with hesitant curiosity.
“I saw it. I saw the river. I saw the people. And..” She paused for a moment, her smile remaining constant.
Ezra’s excitement couldn’t handle his sister’s long pause. “And what?”
“And.. I know where that place is. Kaja!” Ella commanded in her broken Korean. “Let’s go!”
“You saw it? In what.. a.. dream?” Before Ezra could finish speaking Eliana had already placed a bag with fruit and a leather canteen of water on the bed next to him and was halfway out the front door. Her straightforward gaze made it clear; Ezra didn’t have a choice but to follow. Not that he had any other intention. He loved following his sister, and his dad always told him it was his greatest duty to protect her. She was one year older than him, but the age was never obvious after they were babies, especially now that they were teenagers. He took on the commission to guard her happily. Eliana, even though she could be bossy and hardheaded, was always reciprocating the protection commission to Ezra with her knowledge. She taught him everything from the time they were just learning to walk, and she cherished her brother as her best friend.
When Eliana was just two years old, she slept in her own little room, but fear and anxiety gripped her at night. The only thing that made her calm was when her brother’s crib was moved into her room. From that moment forward, she overcame her fear, and the two became inseparable.
Eliana waved a small stick in front of her, gently dismantling a spider web that covered the entrance to a mysterious passageway through the underbrush of a giant forest near their home. The overgrown valewood was impassable without special knowledge of the deer trails and broken trees that led to the hidden sanctuary of Ezra’s vision.
Ezra confidently followed his sister into the unknown, his breath hastening along with their pace. His heartbeat likewise increased as he felt more and more as if he was fulfilling a hidden purpose in his soul.
“Do you see it?” Eliana pointed to a clearing ahead. A tree the size of a forest sat exactly where the river was in the vision, so big that its roots made a series of caves that was irresistible to Ezra’s explorative nature.
“It’s so big! How have I never seen this before?” Ezra exclaimed with wide eyes.
“I remember mom and dad taking me here when I was a baby. Mom had me wrapped in something tied to her back,” Eliana explained. Ezra wasn’t surprised by his sister’s impressive recollection. Eliana’s mind was like a vast and gleeful library with meticulously cataloged books waiting to be opened at her desire. As they got closer, the tree itself seemed alive with an energy that resonated with their souls, an energy that overwhelmed them as they got closer to its huge roots. They stood mesmerized.
The consuming emotions of the moment as they stood gazing at the canopy of branches from the tree that seemed to reach into the clouds was only settled by the calming aroma of aged wood and fresh herbs.
"What's that?" Eliana asked, pointing. Ezra quickened his eyes upon a ledge inside the small root cave next to them. What IS that? Without hesitation he dashed towards the ledge and promptly began twisted about with his arms flailing to remove some invisible substance from his face.
Eliana smirked, saying, “calm down,” as she grabbed a twig and pointed it right next to Ezra’s head. A large brown spider crawled onto the stick, and she sat it outside the entrance. “Sorry, spider. We messed up your web, too,” she said with a gentleness that her brother encouraged in her.
With newly cautious excitement, Ezra reached his hand up onto the ledge. His fingertips felt something very untreelike, and he shouted “Ahh! Something is up there!”
“Well.. did it bite you?” Eliana asked giggling, used to her brother’s hasty and sometimes regrettable decisions. Ezra shrugged off his fear and reached back up to grab the paper-smooth object that he had just felt. It was a big scroll, rolled up tightly, giving off a pungent decaying smell that quickly faded into the calming, woody scent they were acquainted with previously. The siblings exchanged a look of wonder, their eyes communicating in a way only siblings understand. This scroll, they realized, was the result of what could only be a miracle. Ezra’s vision. Ella’s dream. Now the scroll appears in a cave of a gigantic tree. It seemed like something that belonged in a fairy tale.
"This... this is incredible," Ezra whispered, his voice tinged with awe.
Eliana's determination flickered to life as wasted no time before unrolling the scroll. As they read the first words on the scroll, the letters began glowing like lightning bugs. A sensation unlike anything they had experienced before washed over them. Their surroundings began shifting and fading away as the glowing light became as bright as the sun. Their hands met as the light consumed them. The fragrance of the scroll faded, and the light, along with their surroundings disappeared. Their hands gripped one another tighter than two plies of a steel cable, and they felt their bodies become weightless in darkness.
Suddenly a thundering voice echoed from the emptiness, “Let there be Light,” and straightway a light greater than any morning they’ve ever experienced illuminated the world around them. The children found themselves on a seemingly infinite shoreline of lifeless earth and pure water.
“How beautiful?. How.. pure?” Eliana sat in amazement, surrendered to the unfolding events.
“Eliana, this is just like another vision, isn’t it?” Ezra asked, his hand still grasping his sister’s tightly, somewhat due to his own fear but mostly because he wanted to protect her from whatever this was.
“Yes, brother.” Her calm voice echoed with assuredness as she pulled her hand away from Ezra’s to point in a circular motion. “This must be the beginning of creation. Just like Grandpa told us, that is God’s Light.”
A beautiful crystal appeared in the water. Like a sea of glass, it expanded to encompass the entire earth, and it separated the waters, leaving some on one side and some on the other. Beautiful flowers began covering the dry earth under the wondrously expanding canopies of giant trees that grew up in the blink of an eye. Within the sea of glass, the sun, moon, and stars danced in praiseful motions to The WORD that created them.
The children’s upward gaze was quickly redirected as the sound of splashing water called them from a distance beyond the shoreline. Giant leviathan, whales of unimaginable size, leapt from the waters, sending giant waves of water crashing on the shores at the feet of the siblings. Fluttering wind and a rapid flapping sound rushed between the children. Birds of every color under the sun flew an aerial dance of wonder and praise to The WORD that created them.
Animals of all kinds ran from behinds the flowers to the shoreline lapping up water with their tongues. A harmony resonated between each being, and the children felt a connection to the world that was only bested by their awe for The Thunderous Voiced One, The Creator.
As the children remained silent in awe, the animals in the sea swam towards them. At the same time, the birds gathered to circle above where the children were standing, and the land animals gathered likewise, circling around them. Creation was all pointing towards them, and a rush of exciting energy filled the children up. Their hearts beat quickly with the movement of the cosmic dance of creation until a warm wind caressed their cheeks. Slowly, softly their hearts calmed, and the siblings’ eyes met once more before the weight of a thousand sleepless nights fell over their eyes. They fell to the earth in a deep sleep.
