He always said that he did not believe in God, heaven or hell but when he died he wanted to go and lay on the beach in some tropical country; those were his favourite places to spend a holiday.
After his funeral some friends came together and wondered if he did get his wish.
They could not know this but his wish had indeed been fulfilled, he was laying on the beach. He did not see anybody else there but they probably were in the hotel having a cool drink.
It was getting warmer so he decided that he could do with something cool himself. He stood up, looked around, no hotel to be seen. It must be a little further down the beach.
It was hot. Don’t see any parasols either. No trees for some shade.
Soon it will be evening and it will cool down.
The evening and the night were not any cooler. He started to dread the heat of the coming day.
The heat came, it was even hotter than before. No comfort at all.
No shade, nothing to quench his thirst, nobody to be seen, what kind of a place is this?
He looked towards the sea and thought “Why did I not think about this before, I can go in the water and cool off”.
He hurried towards those little ripples of water on the edge of the beach to cool off his feet, he stepped in them, did not feel any cool water had a good look they were all little ridges of sand.
Looked ahead and saw that all this water was a mirage.
Walked up and down the beach for a while, looked up and cursed the God he did not believe in.
Then he heard a voice saying: “Don’t curse God, He only sent you here because you wanted to. It was your choice to reject His offer of reconciliation with Him.”
“Tell me “Voice” what kind of beach is this anyway?”
“This is not just a beach; it is the state of God forsakenness” the Voice answered. It is identical to the being in hell in which you did not believe”.
“How come I am the only one here?”
“There are many more in here but the one is not aware of the presence of the other this is what causes the loneliness.” answered the Voice.
“I have a question for you too” said the Voice, “if you had known about the horror of this place would you have looked for a way to stay out of it?”
“Nobody ever told me that there is a place like this, all I had to do was re-establish the connection with God they said, they never mentioned anything about this place if I did not.”
“You know now” said the Voice “that this is the worst place someone can be in, that is why nobody likes talking about it. Some did though, however many more should have done so.”
“Tell me Voice, how much longer do I have to be here?”
The Voice pretended not to hear his question.
“Voice, I asked you a question, how much longer?”
“You’ll be here forever!”
“I want to die!” he screamed. “You are dead already” was the answer.
He cursed and cursed and cursed again the God who had granted him his wish and meted out His justice.
He will be cursing God forever.
