A | Terminal Cruise

AA: In September 1949 the General Materials corporation created the GenMat television network in a campaign to increase sales of their high-end television sets and other electronics. On Thursdays at 8 pm, GenMat aired a half-hour program called 𝘈𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘭 𝘈𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘺, pioneering the multi-camera production technique and 35mm film later popularized by 𝘐 𝘓𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘓𝘶𝘤𝘺. Unlike that sitcom, however, 𝘈𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘭 𝘈𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘺 was a drama with neither a live audience nor canned laughter. In the early going General Materials was the sole sponsor for 𝘈𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘭 𝘈𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘺, with commercials for products such as the Stargazer television set, which “𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘰 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳, 𝘪𝘵’𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 … 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘣𝘦𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘥!” Titan-Glass was a scratch-resistant, lead-infused glass used for coffee tables and shelving: “𝘊𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘯.” Gen-Lustre was a specialized cleaning solution designed specifically for the delicate screens of Stargazer televisions and the high-gloss cabinets of GenMat stereos. “𝘒𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘵𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴.”
AB: 𝘈𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘭 𝘈𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘺 was followed at 8:30 pm by 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘢! starring Father Charles Kendall, a neo-Thomist Catholic priest, alongside a well-meaning but frequently errant altar boy known only as “Credo.” Unlike Angel Academy, the program used live television cameras and performed before a studio audience. Only about twenty kinescopes are known to survive. 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘢! frequently opened with discussion of the 𝘈𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘭 𝘈𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘺 episode that had just aired, with Fr. Kendall taking pains to correct the liberties he said the series took with Roman Catholic doctrine. More commonly, however, 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘢! concerned itself with reconciling reason and faith, and questions of morality, against the perceived post-modernist onslaught of the Twentieth Century. Though structured largely as a homily attending an on-camera daily Mass for the studio audience, the program was also noted for its humor. 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘢! proved popular with Catholic and non-Catholic viewers alike, and many converts to the Church cited this program as an influence.
AC: Soon the producers of 𝘈𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘭 𝘈𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘺 paid tribute to Fr. Kendall by having the show’s characters use “Maranatha!” (Aramaic for “Come, O Lord!”) as a generic interjection or even mild expletive. Together, 𝘈𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘭 𝘈𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘺 and 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘢! formed an informal Catholic Hour on the GenMat network. In 1954, Pope Pius XII honored Fr. Kendall with the title of monsignor. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also had mixed feelings about 𝘈𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘭 𝘈𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘺. Enoch, Moses, Elijah, and John the Baptizer appeared on the series from time to time as glorified men, which comported well with Latter-day Saint doctrine. The angel Moroni was also depicted as a respected professor of North American indigenous studies. However, Latter-day Saints identified Gabriel with Noah, and while the glass of wine in Gabriela’s hand was scripturally Noahide, many felt the depiction of Gabriel as female was a poor choice, and having her blowing horizontal smoke rings that drifted over people’s heads as “halos” was considered too much.
AD: Much of the comedy stemmed from subverted expectations. Audiences anticipated a celestial hierarchy of glory but what they got was bureaucratic bumbling where the angels kept stepping on their wings. This being the 1950s, everyone smoked like a chimney, except Raphael, the angel of healing, who knew better. Some angels were married to each other or to baseline human beings, obliging Fr. Kendall to open to the gospel according to St. Luke. Evangelicals of the Jimmy Swaggart stripe were offended that Muslims and Roman Catholics were not automatically categorized with demons, and the demons themselves were not called demons at all, but rather “the Loyal Opposition,” or “the Powers of the Air,” and were treated more as a rival political party than an existential threat to God’s creation. Dumah never said a single word, as he was the angel of silence, but his obvious struggle to remain mute and keep a straight face through ridiculous situations was hands down the funniest part of the show.
AE: The series initially ran from the fall of 1949 to the spring of 1961. Each episode provided twenty-three minutes of content, beginning with a one minute thirty second cold open. The title theme, credits, and sponsor billboard followed for one minute. Act I ran eight minutes, followed by a two minute commercial break. Act II ran eight minutes thirty seconds, followed by another two minute break. Act III concluded the episode in five minutes. End credits and the sponsor plug lasted one minute thirty seconds, followed by a half-minute network ID and preview of the next week’s show. Total non-content amounted to seven minutes. Each season introduced thirteen new episodes. In the first few seasons sometimes a GenMat spokesperson was integrated directly into the show’s set before cutting to a filmed commercial. Modern audiences reviewing the DVD archives find these interruptions as striking as the era’s ubiquitous on-set smoking, though many longtime fans regard both as part of the show’s distinctive charm.
AF: In the 2000s, the original 𝘈𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘭 𝘈𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘺 episodes became available as part of a DVD box set, which also included the 1970s reboot series. The show had returned in 1975 as a one-hour fantasy/drama/sitcom for six-and-a-half seasons on ABC and an aborted half season on NBC. The pilot episode followed a television documentary crew filming at Migdalel College in Havilah when they were abducted by the Loyal Opposition seeking to present their side of the story at long last; the crew was subsequently rescued by Academy faculty and students on a so-called “Prank”. ABC Network executives (both in-show and in reality) found the footage compelling and requested that the production be developed into a series within the series. The original GenMat-era broadcasts survived on film, but little footage remained widely accessible. For decades the show’s early run in black and white was remembered rather than watched (albeit remembered quite fondly) until remastering for the DVD format enabled a complete archival release.
AG: Margaret Colin anchored the 1975 revival as Eleanor “Ellie” Rothman, the formidable director and editor of the series’ “show within a show.” Ellie was born in Brooklyn in 1939 to a mixed Jewish-Catholic family. Her grandmother was a Yiddish theater actress; her father was a lapsed seminarian turned combat photographer. Ellie inherited a complex relationship with both faith and the lens. A graduate of New York University Tisch School of the Arts, and an early pioneer in handheld 16mm documentary work, Rothman built a reputation in industry circles as a “fixer” capable of salvaging troubled edits and coaxing coherence from difficult subjects. Though highly respected, she was often deemed too principled for the standard television fluff of the era. It was Rothman’s unflinching eye that first brought her to Havilah. Following the harrowing abduction documented in the pilot episode, and particularly after her encounter with the imprisoned Watchers, Ellie evolved into the de facto conscience of Angel Academy.
AH: If Ellie Rothman is the fiery conscience of the 1975 reboot, her husband Simon is its technical anchor. Played with understated warmth by Michael O’Neill, Simon serves as the show’s camera operator and special effects expert. The two met amid the grit of 1960s protest documentary filmmaking, forging a partnership rooted in shared principles. But Simon has always been more naturally inclined toward faith. Simon’s role on 𝘈𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘭 𝘈𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘺 is perhaps the most demanding on the set. Tasked with masking genuine supernatural activity, he is forced to use his considerable expertise to make the miraculous appear mundane. To protect the Academy’s secrets, Simon employs a technique he calls “reverse verisimilitude.” He deliberately introduces the hallmarks of 1970s television artifice to mask reality. He insists on attaching visible wires to the angels’ wings and forces them to recreate their flights against poorly lit blue screens, ensuring the resulting Chroma key fringe looks sufficiently fake to the average viewer.
AI: Rounding out Ellie Rothman’s core crew is a Kuwapi man called Wiiya Wiiya (Coyote Cub) Shybear, known in the original series as El Roi (“God sees me”), a name bestowed upon him by Hagar in Genesis 16. He played saxophone for the Havilah Harmonics and beginning in 1962 he played lead guitar for Ragnarock. In the 1975 show revival, Elroy served as the production’s sound man. Ellie also relied on him for deep background on Havilah. He was an IATSE member in good standing who worked at scale and was rarely seen without a boom mic in his hand. Sometimes the microphone drifted into the shot, but Simon usually just rolled with it and it ended up on the final cut, fodder for college dorm drinking games in the 70s. Elroy is legendary in underground production circles for his uncanny ability to capture perfect “room tone” in even the most acoustically impossible locations. He is a master of capturing the set’s atmosphere, which he often heralds with a single raised finger and a quiet, “Let the silence work, bro.”
AJ: If Angel Academy is a window into the divine, Special Agent in Charge Claude Colson is the man trying to draw the blinds. The head of the FBI’s project DECON (Domestic Enemies Containment, Observation, and Neutralization), Colson has been the Academy’s perpetual gadfly since 1942, a man who views the sudden incursion of “the Other” not as a blessing, but as a contagion. His presence is as unnerving as it is consistent. What puzzles the Rothman crew is that Colson is no skeptic. Unlike the traditional rationalist, he acts with the weary, bureaucratic hostility of someone who knows the angels are real and simply disapproves of their presence. When Simon Rothman once mockingly asked if he worked for the Vatican, the NSA, or “Heaven’s HR Department,” Colson offered a chilling clarification of his standing orders: to monitor “anomalous content.” Pointing to a frame of glowing wings in the middle of ChromaKey compositing, he noted that 𝘈𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘭 𝘈𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘺 remains “the most anomalous content on network television.” Lately #Montana is my favorite state.
AK: In 1979, ABC moved 𝘈𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘭 𝘈𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘺 to the notoriously difficult Saturday night 8:00 PM time slot. The dense, philosophical drama struggled to compete against the era’s lighter, more action-oriented fare, consistently losing ground to hit shows on rival networks such as 𝘊𝘏𝘪𝘗𝘴, 𝘉𝘶𝘤𝘬 𝘙𝘰𝘨𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 25𝘵𝘩 𝘊𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘺, and the popular comedy 𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘱𝘦𝘳 𝘝𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘗𝘛𝘈. Seeking to cut its losses, ABC sold the struggling series to NBC in early 1982, clearing the Saturday time slot for the debut of 𝘛.𝘑. 𝘏𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘦𝘳. The network awkwardly aired the remaining episodes following 𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘱𝘦𝘳 𝘝𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘗𝘛𝘈 in the spring of 1982, and burned off six final episodes in June and July after the comedy concluded its run. The erratic scheduling proved fatal. Viewers, already fatigued by the show’s shifting timeslots, simply tired of trying to hunt down their once-favorite program. Consequently, NBC quietly pulled the plug. When the fall television season launched in 1982, the halls of the Angel Academy were, at last, truly silent.
AL: For a specific demographic of Generation X nerds raised on Commodore 64s, dog-eared Tolkien paperbacks, and Velvet Underground bootleg cassettes 𝘈𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘭 𝘈𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘺 became a spiritual totem. It was a show that was strange, profound, occasionally ridiculous, and unmistakably theirs. This groundswell of digital evangelism ultimately proved to the industry that a viable market for content related to the show still existed. In 2003, boutique distributor Shout! Factory acquired the rights and released the long-awaited complete DVD box set. They were packaged with restored footage and marketed with a brilliant, era-defining tagline: “𝘉𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘭𝘴 𝘧𝘦𝘭𝘭, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴.” The collection sold surprisingly well, cementing the show’s legacy not just as a television anomaly, but as a foundational text of modern cult media. Though its presence slowly faded from pop culture’s main stage as the new millennium progressed, 𝘈𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘭 𝘈𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘺 never entirely died; it merely went underground.
AM: Still, the fanbase was undeniably aging. The second generation of viewers who discovered the show’s profound oddities in collegiate dorm lounges were now entering their fifties and sixties. For them, the memory of the series was less about the plot and more about the quiet elegy of having found something genuinely strange and wise long before the Internet knew everything. In the 2010s, a recurring joke on the remaining message boards insisted that fans weren’t simply dying off, they were instead “exiting Stage Left.” This was a reference to the show’s iconic visual of angels departing the show by train, disappearing into the white mist of the Dole impact basin and leaving behind only whispered regrets. By the 2020s, the Shout! Factory box sets had fallen out of print, and most of the foundational fan websites returned cold 404 errors. Today the show’s survival rests entirely in the hands of a few dedicated digital archivists who maintain seeded torrents of old interviews and DVD commentary tracks.
AN: 𝘈𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘭 𝘈𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘺 season 1 episode 1, September 1, 1949: In 1868 the CSA celebrates five years since winning the war. Mikaela authorizes a “Prank.” Students from the Academy’s compound in Missouri board a spectral locomotive, traveling to the bloody height of 1862. Their target: a Confederate adjutant general who kept a duplicate copy of Special Order 191 as a memento, preventing its historical loss. The angels steal Lee’s dispatch from his home, but they must plant it where Union soldiers will find it naturally, without suspecting a 𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘥𝘦 𝘨𝘶𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘦. Remiel suggests wrapping the stolen orders around three of Dumah’s precious Cuban cigars, tying them with string, and dropping the bait in the smoking ruins of D.H. Hill’s abandoned camp. “The cigars will draw their eyes,” Remiel explains coldly as the temporal train prepares to depart and she sees the timeline settle into a brutal new channel. “The war will stretch on for years longer this time, and cost thousands more lives. But ultimately, the Union will win.” @PetterOfCats Angel Academy is a novel I’m writing, about a show, except the Angels are real and the show is cover. Winks within winks. And I’m posting it to Mastodon to force me to do the best I can.
AO: 𝘈𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘭 𝘈𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘺 season 1 episode 2, September 8, 1949: Zuriel bumped into Adamu and Hava in the garden and asked, “Why are you two wearing clothes?” Adamu shrugged and said, “Because we were naked.” “Who told you that?” Adamu and Hava have no answer. Zuriel accused them of eating the forbidden fruit. Adamu said, “Hava put some in with a bunch of other fruit and I ate it. It wasn’t my fault! Besides, you’re the one who made this thing and gave it to me. I didn’t even ask for a partner, let alone a broken one!” Hava’s defense is more methodical. “You said it was poison. Snake said it was brain food. So I ran human trials and used Adamu as a control group to rule out sex-based differences. It turns out the fruit really is brain food, just as Snake claimed! I admit the error bars are pretty large, but that’s how statistics work with small sample sizes.” Zuriel told Adamu, “You eat whatever is put in front of your face, but now you must work for a living. And Hava, you surely will not be running things anymore.”
AP: 𝘈𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘭 𝘈𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘺 season 1 episode 3, September 15, 1949: Takoda and his wife Yuha ride across the sprawling grasslands where they live. Along the way, Takoda recounts the legend of White Buffalo Calf Woman, who once restored the dying herds and brought the sacred pipe to the People. At a newly erected barbed wire fence, they meet two strangers waiting on the prairie: Raphael Haivri and her sister Ariel. A small bison herd stands trapped, one bleeding badly where it has become tangled in the vicious new iron wire. Takoda unlimbers Shahar Haruach and uses its power to slice the wire. Raphael steps forward, healing the beast’s torn flesh with a mere touch. Ariel leads the herd through the breach to freedom. She turns to Takoda and produces a sacred pipe. In a moment of quiet revelation, Takoda understands: Ariel herself is White Buffalo Calf Woman. She confirms it, but her eyes are heavy with sorrow. Raphael can heal flesh, but she warns them House Haivri cannot halt the plague of barbed wire closing the West.
AQ: 𝘈𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘭 𝘈𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘺 season 1 episode 4, September 22, 1949: Yeshua of Nazareth and his fraternal twin brother Yudah have taken to the road following a bitter dispute with certain members of their family. They encounter Yochanan the Dipper at the confluence of the Yarmouk and Yarden rivers south of Lake Kinneret. Yochanan speaks to the gathered crowds of the long succession of empires that have ruled the Yudim, from Babylon through Persia, Greece, and Rome, and of how both foreign domination and corrupt priesthood have reduced the people to poverty and despair. He rejects the idea that revolt alone can secure lasting freedom, declaring instead that God himself will soon become the true temple and bring direct rule among his people. Turning from ritual sacrifice without transformation, he compares sin to a broken chariot wheel that corrupts every road it touches, insisting that the wheel itself must be repaired. Moved by his words, Yeshua and Yudah step forward to receive the cleansing baptism of the Dipper.
AR: 𝘈𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘭 𝘈𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘺 season 1 episode 5, September 29, 1949: As a girl preparing to embark on the Oregon Trail in 1865, Linda Bergin discovered that oxen sometimes did not turn at the touch of a pole. They were called “stiff of neck,” which explained why scripture referred to the Israelites as a stiff-necked people. But Lailah said such stubbornness was really a good thing if one wished to move toward a single goal without turning to one side or the other. So Linda took to calling all the pilgrims “Stiffnecks,” and it quickly caught on as a self-deprecating moniker. In 1872 Lailah gave the same young Linda an angelic pre-wedding gift: The Blades of Many Colors, ten in all. “One for each color the wings of angels are known to have,” she said. “And potentially one for each finger she could lose mishandling them in the slightest,” warned Vretiel, as the stiff blades were invisible to the eye when seen edge-on. Vretiel set one point-down upon an oak table and it sank under its own weight as though immersed in water.
AS: 𝘈𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘭 𝘈𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘺 season 1 episode 6, November 3, 1949: Zuriel said, “Grant unto me one of the high kindred of Kemen, even one of a venturous spirit.” And the Red Dragon answered, “And what purpose wilt thou make of such a one?” Zuriel said, “I will set apart a people unto myself upon the Earth, yet I shall not speak unto them from day to day as thou hast done among thine own in Kemen. But once in each year will I make a visible sign unto a single priest, whether it be for a blessing or for a curse.” Thus was the covenant attested between Ayat and Azul to assay mankind. And after much time it came to pass, when Lailah smote the dragon and brought him low, the still-living head of the avatar of Azul said, “Take now thy son, thine only son Yishak, whom thou lovest, and send him to Canaan, there to become the high priest of El Elyon.” And Lailah was struck to the heart, and sought succor in the countenance of Uriel, who also grieved for his son, but the covenant was fixed from of old, and he could do nothing.
- AT: 𝘈𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘭 𝘈𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘺 season 1 episode 7, November 10, 1949: At a prayer meeting Ariel tells a congregation of Maryland farmers a terrible battle is soon to take place. The people will be safe but their animals are at hazard of being permanently “borrowed” by troops from both armies. She offers safe haven for them at her family’s farm. But Ariel faces a slew of questions from the parishioners. When asked about her cloak of feathers, Ariel says she has “grown attached to them.” Then when the fateful day comes, only Joshua attends Ariel with his handful of beasts. They hear the thunder Ariel predicted, high on South Mountain, that is really the artillery of the armies opening up. But just then a great congregation of animals are seen moving toward Ariel and Joshua. Half of the congregation owned animals, and half of these have heeded Ariel’s warning. The animals seem to gather around Ariel eagerly, like to a source of water. Ariel says, “Beasts always seem to fall in love with me. The feeling goes both ways.” I always eat Spunow when I watch radar. Everyone knows that!
AU: 𝘈𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘭 𝘈𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘺 season 1 episode 8, November 17, 1949: Elroy and Remiel are on a working honeymoon in Kemen, at times undertaking Pranks in both worlds. At Harran, Remiel tells Elroy a sign has been prearranged. When Elroy asks a woman at a well for water, she is revealed as Yishak’s wife to be. And behold, Rebekah comes forth, born to Bethuel son of Milcah, wife of Nahor, with a pitcher upon her shoulder. Elroy greets her on behalf of his master Yishak and draws from his bag gold multiplied in abundance. Her household asks if she will depart with these strangers, and she answers, “I will go.” Rebekah assents not on the basis of Yishak’s character, whom she does not yet know, but on the conduct of his servants at the well: courteous, humble, and devout. The gold is customary, but she judges Yishak must be good, given the conduct of those who serve him. Elroy and Remiel bring her into Sar Lailah’s tent, and Yishak takes Rebekah as his wife; he is comforted after his parents are forever parted from him.
AV: 𝘈𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘭 𝘈𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘺 season 2 episode 9, November 24, 1950: Dumah temporarily filled in for Fr. Kendall at Saint Mary Magdalene Parish in Havilah, at least for Saturday confessions. The townspeople soon realized that confessing to the Angel of Silence created a curious loophole, for Dumah could neither speak aloud nor assign a verbal penance. Confession lines consequently grew quite long. When at last it became Dumah’s own turn to confess, he communicated through an intricate sequence of nods and gestures which the astonished priest (repeating back to Dumah as he went along) somehow understood quite perfectly. Dumah revealed that he had once been appointed to escort young Yishak safely into Canaan, and that his unbroken silence was not merely the mark of his divine office but a penance freely undertaken after he tore out the hearts of Sar Lailah and Uriel. Fr. Kendall granted absolution and assured Dumah he bore no personal guilt for obeying God’s command, yet Dumah chose to continue his silence all the same.
AW: 𝘈𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘭 𝘈𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘺 season 1 episode 10, February 2, 1950: Yochanan appointed four disciples as screeners to hear confessions and judge their readiness for baptism in the Yarden. Yudah was received by Philippos. He confessed that a rotten scaffolding pole in Sepphoris collapsed and killed his father Yosef, despite warnings from his sons that the materials were unsafe. Philippos found no fault in him, but perceived God’s will to heal the boy’s grief through the baptism. Yeshua in turn confessed to Andreia that he worked in his father’s trade and Yosef died in a work accident he had long feared would come. Yeshua and his brother left home in anger after refusing to continue the dangerous labor, and he confessed to carrying guilt for refusing the wishes of his mother. Andreia accepted his contrition and brought him to Yochanan. At the river, Yochanan led Yeshua into the water, and though the river was shallow, Yochanan suddenly could not locate him, He searched in confusion but Yeshua has vanished from sight. Size matters not. Judge me by my candy bar, do you?
AX: 𝘈𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘭 𝘈𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘺 season 1 episode 11, February 9, 1950: At a stone bridge the federals had the greater momentum and nearly reached the other side of the creek before the rebels bounced them back. Under fire the boys in blue trod in reverse over men writhing with lead balls lodged in their innards. A tube loaded with canister mowed down rebels like grass. A colonel on the Union side was shot, but to the wonderment of his men the Minie ball wedged in his pocket Bible. With this divine sanction the officer led another charge. Union soldiers standing on the mounting pile of bodies swapped empty muskets for loaded ones like water in a bucket brigade. The rebel infantry ran low on powder and a colonel pulled back his battery under cover of a rearguard. The federal corps commander ordered a captain to ride back to headquarters and report a bridgehead had been secured. The officer splashed across the stream on foot, bypassing all the carnage on the bridge. After all, the water in the creek wasn’t even waist deep.
AY: 𝘈𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘭 𝘈𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘺 season 1 episode 12, February 16, 1950: In Havilah, Gabriela conducted a marriage counseling session for a bickering couple by relating what happened when Joseph discovered Mary’s pregnancy and prepared to call off the wedding. Gabriela intervened in that case too, sitting both of them down in a dusty Nazareth workshop for a blunt lecture on the “facts of divine life.” Gabriela offered Mary of Nazareth a soul-binding contract and explained the benefits of the Theotokos appointment while Mary asked sharp questions about the non-disclosure stipulation. Gabriela assured her that while the “Way” did involve a lot of walking, the retirement plan in the afterlife was top-tier. She added that Joseph’s carpentry skills would soon be secondary to providing celestial security on a contract basis. Joseph just wanted to know if he was still the father of record. Gabriela told him, “Frankly, ‘Heavenly Father’ is more of a title than anything biological.” Mary went ahead and signed the contract.
AZ: 𝘈𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘭 𝘈𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘺 season 1 episode 13, February 23, 1950: Yishak and Rebekah bore twin sons, Esau and Ya’akov. By mischance Esau found he could not always depend upon his own strength and skill to sustain himself. Returning from the field famished, he begged his brother for food. Ya’akov gave him bread and lentil soup, but he required in exchange a solemn oath transferring the Birthright. Esau agreed, being near to death with hunger. Afterward Esau recovered, and he came to regard the Birthright as of little consequence. Then the Red Dragon accused Ya’akov before Zuriel of failing to provide for his own. But Zuriel answered, “Did you know when these two were born Esau came first, but Ya’akov came but five heartbeats later because he was clutching his brother’s heel? Esau is formed by what is present, while Ya’akov seeks endurance by rising beyond the world. On Earth advantage does not always align with strength, and survival may pass to those who secure what others hold not. I’m selecting for precisely that.”

A

Share this:

Posts