"And the Queen of the South
shall have her day - that's really what scripture is saying!"
- Rev. Billy Graham
"And the Queen of the South
shall have her day - that's really what scripture is saying!"
- Rev. Billy Graham
A Meeting at Union Station
June, '09, Union Station, DC
Immediately after my divine encounter with another on the upper deck of the Schenectady, NY Amtrak station I boarded a train headed for Union Station in D.C. I was on my way to do some hiking and hitch hiking in Northern Virginia. It was a very early weekday morning when I arrived and everything inside the terminal was still very very quiet. Like a church. But without a bunch of people lighting candles.
There was a rail link connection to a local commuter train that went out to Manassas, VA. After checking it's schedule I took a seat in it's public's waiting area and waited. And nobody ever checked my two backpacks to see if they had any of that enriched plutonium stuff right inside!
Finally it was time. So I moved my packs - and myself - to the commuter link waiting dock which was a short walk down a hall and then through a door. At first I thought that I was there all alone. Just me and the dock.
But then 'SHE' just appeared out of thin air!
About six feet to my left and back a little. And as a twenty something gorgeous thing - dressed in a jean jacket and a black knit sweater and blue jeans and really cool looking knee high black leather boots. And now I knew why all of those Jimi Hendrix songs had to be written and why they were absolutely necessary ...
It was now obvious!
And so it was now just the two of us. Just standing there. In the silence. And so of course not a word was spoken. None needed!
The commuter train finally pulled up and there wasn't another soul on board. We would be the train's only two passengers. I got on the last car and she dutifully followed. Her with her Divine 'presence', and me with just my two backpacks. She took a horizontal seat right across from me and then laid right down on her side and proceeded to cast her gaze in my direction for the entire ride. And so this, as you can imagine, created quite an interesting emotion. But she made sure to never make direct eye contact. So she must have had her reasons.
Probably so that I wouldn't just explode!
Because I was still just a mere mortal earthling.
But she wasn't!
Not anymore.
She had broken through.
As the train pulled out of Union Station it meandered it's way through a most beautiful city. The morning sun had just come up and it was splashing itself everywhere. As we crossed the Potomac we could, from the apex of the bridge, look back upon 'the city' and see that it really wasn't sleeping. Not at all. It was really quietly in prayer. Just like in those 'three daily' community prayers that happen. In places like Mecca. And Medina.
That's just the way it seemed.
And I then looked back to her and her gaze was still upon me. Just as before. Which, like I said, created quite an interesting emotion.
And so the train ride continued. As if on an 'ethereal plane' from above. And a very special one at that, all things considered. And through quite an interesting landscape. And then it finally arrived. Manassas.
I disembarked - half expecting her to follow suit. But she didn't. Because that kind of stuff only happens on TV. But she had already made her point. And she had already worked her magic.
And my soul can remember to this day that as I was disembarking - and unloading the first of my two bags - that I stupidly, and inexplicably, feared that this 'Divine presence' of a woman might actually 'keep' the other one for herself. While I wasn't looking. You know 'rifle it'. The one that I hadn't yet unloaded. And then a Divine Assistant - one of those that I keep telling everybody about but that nobody ever believes me until finally now - suddenly appeared as a middle aged fellow and he said to me (and for Divine effect too) -
“What are you worried about?”
Because he wanted me to know that 'SHE' was from Heaven - and that one of the reasons that 'SHE' just appeared in the first place was to protect - to deflect unwarranted incursions - from either unsavory earthlings or various unsound 'spirits' from regions elsewhere or whatever else.
“And you're worried about your stupid luggage?”
Now humbled I hoisted my pack and cribbed. Cribbed along the Manassas, VA sidewalks. And beautiful they were. And a beautiful morning it was.
But I couldn't fully enjoy any of it. Not really. Because unfortunately I was broke. Down to just $8. It just wrecks everything.
I finally arrived on the outskirts of town, where I could pick up my hitch-hiking chore. And before me was a beautiful field. And it heralded a road side sign. A plaque. An historical marker. And put there for a reason.
So that you would now know stuff!
It was something about 'Civil War troop movements'. And now I knew why SHE had just been staring at me, in her own special way, for the entire ride.
Something about 'troop movements'.
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