Miss Kelley Ambergh Greene, the attic lass, shuts herself alone in her attic, because she thinks that the rapture of the believers must take place for her in her attic. Wishing for the rapture was a good thing. However, Kelley Greene has chosen to stop everything else in her life and to be idle in her wait for the Lord to come. She even quits worship in her love for her attic. And she breaks up with her boyfriend Flanders and with her twin brother Proffery. The Lord has to do something to make his attic lass to repent.
THE ATTIC LASS
By Mr. Morgan P. McCarthy
Her name was Kelley Ambergh Greene, a born-again Christian, and she was of many things most of all the attic lass. Right now she was again filling hours of this day, as well, by sitting on the sofa of the attic in the dark with the lights off in here. She was waiting for the Lord to come and rapture her up to Heaven, and she believed that it would happen with her in this room. The only opening to the outside of this attic was a small rectangle of a vent, with a little screen and with metal slats; and it let in air, but it did not let in light. And with the attic lights off it was hard to tell day from night in here. The apex of this attic’s ceiling was in the middle, and its sides both sloped steeply down to the floor to the left and to the right in this attic. And Kelley had this room filled with what could only be called “attic stuff.” Her home was a second-story apartment of a duplex with an upper and a lower apartment. She always loved upper apartments. And this upper apartment’s attic was also on this same second-floor, whose entrance was through a little and short wooden door at the back of her kitchen.
Page 1
“Good Lord Jesus,” she said in spontaneous prayer, “I can’t wait.” She was sure that soon in this unlit little attic that the mighty winds of the Holy Spirit would arise in here, form a mighty whirlwind under the roof, and snatch her up, harmlessly through the ceiling and up to the clouds and then up to Heaven. Those were the characteristics of the rapture, but she insisted on adding to this promise that she be in this dark attic when it happened. And she added the Holy Spirit winds, too. She loved all attics, but she loved this one of hers the most of all attics. The rapture was the easy road to Heaven. Dying was the hard road to Heaven. And because of the imminent rapture, Kelley Greene would not have to die to get to Heaven. And this rapture that she so eagerly made preparations for were only for the born-again Christians in the world, like herself.
The Holy Bible had some things to say about this rapture of the saints. In I Thessalonians 4:13-18, God’s Word says the following: “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” And also in I Corinthians 15:51-53 God’s Word tells us this; “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” Just think upon the God of the rapture. He must look down upon every last person dead and alive; he must separate the saved from the unsaved; and he must bring the saved—either from their graves or from
Page 2
their living lives—all up to Heaven with Him all at the same moment from wherever they all are in the Earth. God is Lord. After this the news will talk about how millions have disappeared from the Earth.
And the global calamity of the tribulation will fall upon the lost, all those who are left behind. And eschatology will have begun.
Kelley Ambergh Green then listened hard for the rapture words to come, the words,” Come up hither.” But the three words did not come yet now for her this time in the attic either. And the attic lass grew disappointed, discouraged, disgruntled here in her attic. She paused to think upon what her Christian boyfriend had told her the other day: “Kelley, the rapture is God’s timetable and not your timetable and not my timetable.” And she let out a sigh of subtle murmuring at the God Who had not come yet. And the attic lass dared to think to herself an actual euphemism toward the Holy God for making her have to wait for the rapture. Then this attic lass remembered how Pastor preached that when the last soul of the church age gets saved, then God will come and take His children up to Heaven with him. There were still lost souls out there who needed to become born-again so that they could get to Heaven in the rapture as well. The Lord was a merciful Lord. And Kelley Greene apologized to God for her sin just now, and God forgave her. God was a God of grace.
And Kelley gave up on the rapture now for this day, and she stood up before her sofa, and she turned on the lights. The two incandescent bulbs were really a comfortable light in this cozy attic.
And she came up to the big mirror that she had standing up against the wall by the exit door, and she looked upon her reflection. And Kelley Greene said, “I thank You, God, for my Kelly green prom dress.” In her full-length unmounted mirror, the attic lass paused to admire her most thorough greenness that was about herself. Her prom dress—the jacket and the bodice and the skirt portions—were all green. Her tights were green. Her pumps were green. Her ribbons in her hair were green. Her hair was green. And her eyes were green. Miss Greene loved all things green. In French, “green” was translated, “vert.” In Spanish, “green” was translated, “verde.” And in German “green” was
Page 3
translated, “grün.”
The attic lass then left her “rapture attic,” and went to her Bible-reading table in the living room. She went to her familiar book of Jonah, the fascinating narrative of a minor prophet in four short chapters. And she began to read about this Jonah. She came to remember all about how God had called him to preach to the people of Nineveh, the capital city of the world empire of Assyria, which was very cruel to Israel, Jonah’s country. Jonah found himself forced to tell the enemy about the Good Lord, and he was not happy. And when he saw a revival happening here, he was even more unhappy.
And he wished for himself to die. This was one reluctant missionary who had no love for his God-ordained mission field. And when Kelley finished reading this book of Jonah, she said to herself, “It doesn’t make sense that he should get mad with so many people coming to God like that. Coming to God is what everybody should go and do. He is a man with an attitude.” After reflecting upon Jonah, the attic lass began to reflect on what reading the Holy Bible would be like for her in Heaven compared to how it was for her yet in this world. In this world, the Word of God was the written Word, the King James Bible, which she did read faithfully every day and did fill up with a satisfaction better than eating and drinking. But in Heaven, the Word of God was the Living Word, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself in the flesh and real! There God’s Words would be spoken directly to her ears with the real voice of the Good Lord Himself right beside her. Surely Jesus’s voice would be more sweet than the Bible’s words. Were not Christ’s spoken words like the sound of many waters? And as Kelley Greene continued on in this reflection, she came to see her Bible studies down here as a poor substitute for her walks and talks with Jesus Up There.. And she said to herself, “It doesn’t make sense that I have to settle for the Book when I could have the real thing.” And Miss Greene continued on in her aberrant thinking, And when she was done, she slammed shut her Holy Bible, and she promised herself, “I shall never read this again.” And she became a woman with an attitude. And first roots of bitterness at the Lord’s timetable for the rapture came to her woman’s heart.
Page 4
Later on this day, Miss Kelley Greene sat upon her prayer site in her bedroom, a pillow on the wooden floor alongside the edge of her bed. She sought now to seek her daily satisfaction from prayer. She had forgotten her decision to quit her Bible studies. And she was oblivious to this great sin of omission as she came to the Lord in prayer. She did not think now upon the words of Psalm 66:18 which said, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:” And she went ahead full steam into her prayer heedlessly. At once she began a most detailed and simple and sincere thanksgiving for all the things that God gave her in this upper apartment. But before too long, she felt that her words were strangely enough not going any higher than the ceiling. And she soon ran out of things for which she was thanking God. And an impasse fell upon the spirit of her prayer this day right now. Then, in a human effort to revive her prayer, the attic lass sought to think up things that God might give her in her mansion in Heaven for which to thank Him now ahead of time down here now.
And the mystery of Heaven made her new prayer come up blank. About Heaven for all yet down here, the Bible says in Deuteronomy 29:29, “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God:…” And her prayer floundered in silence. Stubborn, the attic lass fought to continue her wayward prayer. And she thought to God about surely how much better that prayer will be There than it ever can be here. Down here her words of prayer had to travel the infinite span of Earth to Heaven to reach her Heavenly Father. But after the rapture, her words would have to travel only from herself right to Jesus the Lord, Him at her side and walking with her. She could see the God then to Whom she was speaking. And He could see her as she spoke to Him. What good was it to pray here beside her bed to a God Whom she had never seen nor could see as long as she was in this world? In a fit of folly, Miss Kelley Greene tested the Lord, saying, “Come down and show Yourself to me, O God.” Of course He did not deign to do this to the rebellious woman addicted to an attic unscripturally. And in a backslider’s words, Kelley Ambergh Green said to God in prayer, “I shall never pray to you again, O Father.” And she got up, kicked her pillow, and threw herself down upon her bed in a fit of tantrum.
Page 5
That afternoon she went to Sunday Afternoon Worship at her Baptist church down the road. They all greeted her in good cheer, and she greeted all of them in good cheer. The women of the church again said, “Nice prom dress, Kelley.” And the men of the church again said, “Love the prom dress, Kelley.” And Pastor’s message that day was the sins of going to the prom. But Kelley Greene was not offended or convicted, because she did not believe in proms. She just loved prom dresses.
And she agreed with Pastor about not going to high school proms. Then in the middle of Pastor’s good sermon Miss Kelley Greene looked around the congregation and counted the number of this Baptist flock. Besides herself, fifty people went to this good little Baptist church. Down in this Earth, fifty people gathered together in corporate worship to glorify God here. In Heaven there were many, many more who gathered together to worship God. Angels and men were worshiping God before His throne up in the glories of Heaven right now, The Bible spoke of “ten thousand times ten thousand” and “thousands of thousands” of angels. And the Bible spoke of “a great multitude, which no man could number of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues” of men. And here in this church in this life, hardly fifty people came out to worship Jesus. Where was the glory of God in so scarce a fellowship as this Sunday Afternoon Worship? Would that the attic lass were with all the hosts of Heaven fallen in worship before Jesus’s throne right now! Things were bigger and better Up There.
And so was the church Up There. And now was Kelley Greene not happy with her fellowship and church life, too. And in silent promise, the attic lass said to herself, “I quit church and the church visitation program.” And the girl in the green prom dress stood up, walked to the exit door, and left her Baptist church behind. And she came back home to her attic.
What was it that “told” this attic lady that she would be raptured up from this attic in a great little tornado? It was not God. It could have been Satan. It certainly was Miss Greene. And she “discovered” this promise from her Bible studies taken out of context. Kelley Greene long had fascinations for wind. Her favorite word was “zephyr.” On the weather channel, she always looked for
Page 6
the wind forecasts. The weather channel always said how many knots that the wind blew over the waters such as the Fox River and the bay of Green Bay. Her best joke was every time she would go and say, “The winds over the bay are ten knots per hour.” She knew that this was redundant, because the word “knots” in itself already meant “miles per hour.” So that truly “knots per hour” literally meant “miles per hour per hour.” And this weather channel also forecast how high the waves would be over the water. And it gave wind directions for throughout the coming day. And it also had wind speed for various cities in Wisconsin “wherever the wind speed was reported,” as they said. And Kelley Greene always found it puzzling when the weather channel would go and forecast something about the wind like “west, at zero miles per hour.” If this wind were to be going zero miles per hour, how could it be blowing from the west?” Would not there be no wind if it were blowing at zero miles per hour? She chose to allow for technical meanings in this matter. And she especially thrilled to hear of tornado watches. The idea of being a tornado chaser had beguiled her fancies earlier in life, but she found out that she had to be good with math to chase tornadoes officially. She was not good with math. So she did not go chasing tornadoes. And even better yet, Kelley Greene loved the tornado warnings and the tornado sirens that went off when a tornado was spotted. What a way to go to Heaven, to be sucked into a tornado’s funnel, and to be taken up into the skies way above. But that would probably hurt.
Best to table that. Besides that, tornadoes were not abundant in the Midwest in Wisconsin. She had heard that the reason that Oklahoma got so many tornadoes was because of the mountains to the west and the flat land to the east and the warm air from the south and the cool air from the north. What came from all of this to make tornado alley tornadoes Kelley Greene did not know. On the weather channel about an approaching severe thunderstorm, yellow was low risk, and red was high risk, and purple was tornado risk. She had heard that when the sky turned green that that was a good chance of a tornado about to form. This was another reason to her for green being her favorite color. Behold the wrath of God in all tornadoes!
Page 7
It was in this attic early in her new life in this upper apartment when she came to believe in her destiny as this attic being her last place on Earth. She was reading from the book of Ezekiel, and she came to Ezekiel 3:12, and she read it. It said this about a spirit and a great rushing wind: “Then the spirit took me up, and I heard behind me a voice of a great rushing, saying, Blessed be the voice of the Lord from his place.” Just as Kelley Greene had read this, a great gale of wind arose and beat upon the back wall behind her where she was sitting upon the sofa. The great rushing winds blew through that little metal lattice of an opening and blew upon the back of her head and the back of her shoulders where she sat upon this attic’s sofa. And she presumptuously saw this as a sign from God. The verse said that a spirit took Ezekiel up. In the rapture, was it a spirit that would take the believers up? Will not this spirit that raptured the Christians be the Holy Spirit of God Himself? And about this voice of a great rushing, what better manifestation of the Holy Spirit than a great rushing wind? And what greater rushing wind than a swirling little tornado? And what better place on earth to leave and go to Heaven than this fascinating and novel new attic in her new place right here?
Then the winds from outside blew upon her Bible on her lap up to the book of John. And therein she read John 3:8, also about wind and the Holy Spirit. Therein it is written, “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” And the attic lass came to believe that this wind howling outside now and turning the pages of her Bible like this was one where a woman could hear its sound but not know where it comes from and where it is going. Being a born-again Christian, she was already born of the Spirit. Surely this wind were the wind of the global rapture promised by the Lord in His Word. She was coming Home! Yes? Yes! Then the wind ceased. All was calm.
This was not the rapture.
But maybe the next time!
And with all of this, the attic lass declared this room to be her “attic of attics.” And she began
Page 8
to camp out in this new attic in her days and in her nights in this new apartment. And she steadily increased her hours of vigilance in this attic as the weeks went by. And she loved to go into this attic. And she hated to go out of this attic.
She told her boyfriend all about her adventure that day with “the winds of the Holy Ghost.”
But he said, “I remember. Those were the straight line winds that came to De Pere that day.” And he told her that the winds were not the Holy Ghost. And he told her that Ezekiel 3:12 was really about God preparing His prophet for a vision about angels. And he told her that John 3:8 was really about comparing Christians to a natural wind on a normal day.
And she did not like what he told her. And she held on to her private interpretations of Scripture. And she believed herself and did not believe Flanders. And now she was addicted to her attic.
But attics were good places. Indeed it was at Grandma and Great Aunt’s attic where little Kelley Greene, a young girl, was born again. Grandma and Great Aunt led her to salvation in their own attic, which was the whole second floor of their two-story house. And it was hot and humid up there in the middle of August that year. Grandma’s bedroom had a tan wooden cross on her wall and a scale upon which little Kelley always like to weigh herself and a music box that had once frightened her when she was very little and a pillowcase with colored lines of stripes and a bed behind which little Miss Greene had once hid herself and had everybody all go looking for her. Great Aunt’s room had a brown wooden cross on the wall and a Bible and a little bookcase and the book entitled “Adventures In American Literature” and a big wide bed. Grandma was a widow of many years. Great Aunt was a retired high school English teacher. Grandma was a Godly woman. Great Aunt was a saintly woman. Grandma’s magazines were “Modern Maturity,” Great Aunt’s magazines were “NRTA Journal.” Both magazines had most picturesque covers front and back. And Grandma and Great Aunt subscribed to “U.S. News and World Report.” And they also had the Oshkosh Northwestern newspaper at home.
Page 9
It was in Great Aunt’s room that day of Kelley’s salvation when she picked up Great Aunt’s King James Holy Bible and began to read the Word of God for her first time. She was sitting upon the carpet before that little bookshelf and along the side of the queen-size bed. The King James Version was written at a fourth-grade level, and little Kelley was in fourth grade. And she began to read the book of the Gospel of John. And little Miss Greene read of a Man called “The Lamb of God.” She saw this in John 1:29 where she read, “The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” In pondering, Kelley Greene, ten years old, came to understand from this Bible verse that this Jesus was this Lamb of God. He must have taken away the sin of the world. What did that mean? She did not know. But she had to find out. She continued reading farther into this book of John. And she read another Scripture verse about this mysterious Lamb of God. It was in John 1:35-36, and it said: “Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples; And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God!” Again, this Lamb of God was a Man called Jesus. This Jesus struck little Kelley Greene as a Person Whom she needed to get to know all about.
She had to go look for Grandma and Great Aunt. They could tell her Who this Lamb was that was Jesus. And she held the Bible against her chest and went looking for them. And she found them up in the attic sorting out stuff in a big wooden chest with a lid. She asked them, “Do I need a Lamb of God, Grandma, Great Aunt?”
The two retired ladies looked at each other with manifest gladness upon little Kelley’s innocent and very wise question.
Grandma said, “Ah, the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world. Yes, Kelley Greene. You need the Lamb of God.”
“How come, Grandma?” asked young Miss Greene.
“Because He is God, and only He can keep you from going to Hell,” said Grandma.
Page 10
“Hell is a bad place,” said little Miss Greene.
“And God is a good God,” said Grandma.
“And God is Jesus,” said little Kelley.
“Yes. Jesus is God,” said Grandma.
“What did this Lamb of God do for me that He can keep me out of Hell?” asked young Kelley.
“He willingly gave up His life on the cross,” said Grandma.
“The cross?” asked Miss Greene.
“The cross of Calvary,” said Grandma.
“Like what you both have on your bedroom walls down there,” said Kelley.
“Yes, my granddaughter,” said Grandma. “Only much bigger and very cruel.”
“How did Jesus die?” asked Kelley.
“He let wicked men pound great big nails into His hands and into His feet to make him stay on the cross and to bleed and to slowly die,” said Grandma.
“That’s bad, Grandma,” said Kelley.
“We are bad, Kelley,” said Grandma.
“Did He die for us then because we are so bad?” asked Miss Greene.
“Yes. He died that He might take away the sin of the world,” said Grandma.
“That’s what I was reading when I decided to come to you and ask you about it,” said Kelley.
“He is the way to Heaven, my granddaughter,” said Grandma.
“But, Grandma, if He is dead, how can He save me?” asked Kelley.
“Christ arose,” proclaimed Grandma the resurrection.
“Do you mean that He came back to life, Grandma?” asked the ten-year-old girl.
“He surely did,” said Grandma. “He rose from the dead on the third day.”
“If He is alive now, He can still save souls,” said Miss Greene.
Page 11
“This is the Easter miracle,” declared Grandma the truth about Easter the holiday.
“Only God can do something like that, Grandma,” said the fourth-grade girl.
“Do you believe?” asked Grandma.
“I believe, Grandma, Great Aunt,” said little Kelley Greene to the two in this attic with her.
Great Aunt said, “”She’s ready, Lucille.”
And Grandma said, “She is, Gladys.”
“I am ready to get saved now, if that is what you two are talking about,” said young Kelley.
Grandma said to Great Aunt, “I leave the honor to you. You are the big sister of the two of us.”
And Great Aunt said to Grandma, “I am truly honored to lead my great niece to the Lord. Thank you, Little Sister.”
“What do I need to do to get saved?” asked little Miss Greene.
And Great Aunt told her, “Just ask Jesus to become your own personal Saviour, and He will become your own personal Saviour.” And she went on to say, “I can lead you through the prayer. Just repeat the lines that I say, one sentence at a time, and when we are done, you are saved.”
“Let’s do that, Great Aunt,” said Kelley Greene.
And Great Aunt led great niece through the sinners’ prayer. And when they were done, Kelley Ambergh Greene was a born-again Christian, just like Grandma and Great Aunt.
And that was how the attic lass had become a believer in Christ in an attic.
And here she was now, years later, a young woman, with a place and an attic of her own. She had backslid in rebellion in her renouncing of all worship of God just recently. And she was back here in the attic again, stubborn and proud and willful. She had called her boyfriend for a date today. He had agreed and said, “Yes. But not in the attic.”
But she had said, “No. In the attic or no place at all.” And he gave in. And now he was on this sofa with her on a date again in her attic.
Page 12
And she and he for a strange first time at first could not find anything to talk about. After a while, Kelley Greene said, “Talk to me, Flanders.”
“I’ve been having doubts about this attic for you, girlfriend,” said Flanders.
“How come?” she asked.
“It’s not good. It is getting evil,” said Flanders.
“My blessed gift from God—this attic—is evil, Flanders?” asked the attic lass, offended.
“God did not give you this attic to make yourself an inmate in it,” said Flanders.
“I love being in here, Flanders,” said Kelley.
“It’s getting so that a boyfriend cannot see you without shutting himself up in this attic with you,” said Flanders.
“We could be here together and get raptured up together if we are on a date when it happens,” said Kelley Greene.
“We will be raptured up together, Kelley, even if we were on the opposite poles of the world from each other,” said Flanders the truth.
“I dare you to tell me one thing that might be wrong with what I do with this attic,” said Miss Greene.
“I believe that it has ruined your walk with Christ,” he said.
“What am I doing that makes you think that?” she asked.
“I never see a Bible in your hands anymore,” he said.
“It’s on my lamp table in the front hall,” she said.
“Do you still read it?” he asked.
“I refuse to answer,” she said.
“Remember the fun we used to have together, reading out loud from the Bible—you and I, Kelley?” he asked. “I would read out loud a verse from my Bible, and you would read out loud the
Page 13
next verse from your Bible. And so on for most of an hour. You were fun on our dates then.”
“Oh, but Flanders. That was then,” she said.
“Remember how we read in our responsive readings out loud all about Solomon and the Queen of Sheba?” asked Flanders in reminiscence.
“How can I forget?” she asked. “I still know what chapters that that true story was in.” And she said, “It was in I Kings chapter nine and II Chronicles chapter ten.”
“It was in I Kings chapter ten and II Chronicles chapter nine, Kelley,” he corrected her.
“No matter. I forget. No problem,” said the attic lass in inappropriate levity.
He was at a loss for words for this telltale confusion. And another while of silence came between the two daters-in-the-Lord here on the sofa in the attic.
Again the attic lass sought to ameliorate this awkward quiet so unseen before in their dates all these months. She said again, “Talk to me, Flanders.”
Her boyfriend said, “Maybe we could do that again—read from the Bible together, like we always used to. I’ve got my Bible in my back pocket. You have your Bible nearby in another room.
Maybe you can go get your Bible and bring it back in here with me. And we can read about Solomon and the Queen of Sheba again. Would you like to do that with your boyfriend-in-the-Lord again, Kelley?”
“I can do that for you, Flanders,” said Kelley Greene. And she got up and left the attic to go get her King James Bible from the front of her upper apartment.
And as he heard her feet coming back through the kitchen, he said, “Dear Kelley, we can enjoy the joys and rejoicings of the Word of God together once again.”
But when she came in through the little doorway, the Bible was not in her hand. “I can’t find it now, Flanders,” she apologized. “I must have lost it somewhere. Who knows where it is lying around now. And I can’t spend the rest of our date together looking all around the apartment for it.”
Page 14
“We can use mine,” he suggested, pulling out his pocket Holy Bible from his back pants pocket.
Yet to this solution, the attic lass went on to say, “My attic is no place for Bible study.”
“What are you saying, Kelley?” he asked.
“My attic is the place for the rapture,” she said.
“Do you regard your attic as an appropriate place for prayer?” he asked her.
“No, really, Flanders. My attic is no longer the place for prayer,” she said.
“I get it, Kelley Greene,” he said. “Your attic is an appropriate place only for the rapture.”
“A woman needs her priorities, boyfriend,” she said.
“We can leave the attic and go to your living room and have another of our good old prayer meetings that we used to love to share together so much as boyfriend-and-girlfriend-in-Christ,” he said, not giving up on her.
“Flanders, a Christian woman can only do that for so long. After a while, it kind of gets dry,” she said, displaying most manifest carnal thinking.
“Why, your prayers were even longer than mine were, and mine were an hour long,” he said.
“Flanders, that was then. But this is now,” said the attic lass.
“Our prayers out loud were living and efficacious and surely reached the throne of God Himself, O Kelley,” he entreated her. “Sometimes you would pray first, and then I would pray second. Sometimes I would pray first, and then you would pray second. Do you remember, girlfriend?”
“I outgrew my desires for prayer meetings,” she said bluntly.
To this Flanders gave forth a sound and deserving rebuke to the attic lass, telling her, “A spiritual Christian woman never outgrows her desire to pray to her Heavenly Father.”
“I love the God of my attic,” she said, hasty and silly.
“This attic has taken away your love for God,” he told her. “Any daughter of God who no longer loves to read her Bible every day and who no longer loves to pray everyday has lost her first
Page 15
love.”
“That is not I,” the attic lass said.
“Kelley, it is you,” he said.
Again an embarrassing silence passed between them. And a great while of quiet came between them, making them even a little ashamed in its third time now. Miss Greene this time did not say, “Talk to me, Flanders.” And with no words Flanders Nickels got up from the sofa and walked away from this date. And the attic lass was left alone for her attic.
A week later, her twin brother called her. He said, “Twin Sister, may I come over? I have to talk to you about something that has come up.”
“What’s it about, Proffery?” she asked.
“I have to come over and tell you face-to-face, Kelley,” he said.
“Twin Brother, do come on over and join me in the attic,” she said.
“Can it be somewhere else than your attic?” he asked. “You need to get out of there.”
“If you need to talk to me, you can talk to me in my attic,” said Kelley Greene.
And Proffery gave in to her. And he came and sat beside her on her sofa in the attic. “So, Twin Brother, what do you need to talk to me about?” asked the attic lass.
“Twin Sister, you never come to church with us anymore,” said Proffery.
“Twin Brother, this attic is now my church,” said Miss Greene.
“There is no one here besides yourself in this ‘church’ almost all the time,” said Proffery.
“Do I need any church people with me to enjoy my attic?” asked Kelley.
“A church is a group of born-again believers in fellowship and in worship and in sharing of the Lord Jesus Christ,” said Proffery.
“But this girl now worships her Saviour all by herself, Twin Brother,” bragged the attic lass.
“God wills His children to worship Him alone in quiet time,” agreed Proffery. “But God also
Page 16
wills His children to gather together in corporate worship in a Bible-believing and Bible-preaching church, too, O Kelley.”
“I no longer wish to be a part of your and Flanders’s Baptist church, Twin Brother,” she said. “Can’t you see that I am waiting for the rapture here?”
“Don’t you think, maybe, Kelley, that God may rapture us Christians in the middle of one of our Baptist worship services?” he asked. “Maybe God wants you to be in His house down here when He comes and takes us all up.”
“I no longer care for Pastor’s sermons,” said the attic lass.
“Pastor always says, ‘A backslidden believer seldom hears a good message.’” said Twin Brother.
“Proffery, what have you come here for?” she asked, his counsel going right over her head.
“I’m trying to help you, Twin Sister. I care for you. And I don’t like seeing what this attic is doing to you,” said Proffery.
“What is this attic doing to me that seems to make me such a bad woman, Proffery?” asked Kelley Greene.
“Twin Sister, you broke up with Flanders. Please do not break up with me,” said Proffery.
“Proffery, enough,” said the attic lass.
“O Kelley, remember those times when you won souls for Christ?” he asked gently.
Her indignation was appeased, and she became no more defensive. She thought for a moment.
“I remember, Proffery,” she said.
“It was great,” he said. “It is great for me. Was it great for you?”
“I remember, Twin Brother,” said Miss Greene. She thought for a moment longer. Then she said, “Whenever I led a person through that sinners’ prayer, I saw a miracle that can only be wrought of God, Twin Brother,”
Page 17
“They all got saved, just as you got saved, Twin Sister,” said Proffery.
“Yeah, Proffery,” she said. “I led quite a few to salvation. Didn’t I?”
“Of the women of our church, only Emmy won more souls on soul-winning nights than you did,” said Proffery.
“My old days of Thursday Evening Visitation,” said Kelley Greene.
“Would you like to come back. O Kelley?” asked Twin Brother.
“I don’t know,” said the attic lass.
“Emmy misses you as her visitation partner,” said Proffery.
“Emmy is a pastor’s wife of great integrity and faith and compassion,” said Kelley.
“You know what Pastor always says about the rapture that you are waiting for,” said Twin Brother.
“I know exactly what you mean,” said the attic lass. “I heard so many wonderful truths from Pastor’s sermons.”
“Tell Twin Brother what Pastor always says about the rapture that you are waiting for in here,” said Proffery.
“When the last soul gets saved of the church age, Jesus will come and rapture up the believers,” said the attic lass Pastor’s words of wisdom.
“What better reason to leave the attic this Thursday and go knocking on doors and giving out the Word of God just as you had always used to do, O Twin Sister?” implored Proffery.
“I don’t know,” said the prodigal daughter of God even now once again.
Seeking to convince her with Scripture now, Proffery said, “It is written in John 9:4 in Jesus’s own words, ‘I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day; the night cometh when no man can work.’ Jesus knew that He needed to work for God for the souls of men. We believers also need to work for God while our times are not yet over. And our work for God is soul-winning, Twin Sister.
Page 18
Again it is written in Luke 19:13, ‘And he called his ten servants, and delivered unto them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come.’ That means do not sit around idle. That means get up and do something for God. That means get out of your attic. Again it is written in I Corinthians 3:9, ‘For we are labourers together with God:…’ And again it is written in II Corinthians 6:1, ‘We then, as workers together with him,…’ Sitting on this attic sofa is not working for the Lord. Souls are lost and dying and going to Hell right now as we sit here in your attic, Kelley.”
Kelley Greene now spoke up and said, “Proffery, I seem to have come to the point where I am too afraid to leave this attic. I cannot leave the attic to come back to church with you. And I cannot leave this attic to go on church visitation with the ladies. I am sorry. I need this attic all the time now and I cannot get out.”
“I can get out,” said Twin Brother.
“Then get out,” said Twin Sister.
And he got out. And Kelley Green and her twin brother became estranged from each other. And she thought that it was his fault. And she stayed in here.
She fell asleep in this attic after having turned off the lights for the night. Then she woke up in the dark of this attic some time later. She came up to the little rectangle of aperture with the screen and the metal fins and tried to look out to see if it were still night or if it were now approaching day. She did see some light out there that was not a moon. Yes, morning was coming. It was twilight now. And she hopped back the sofa, sat down upon it, and waited even yet for the Lord to come for her and to rapture her to the clouds and higher. Then an ominous and strange smell came into her nose. At first she could not tell what it was, even though it was a smell that everyone smells from time to time. Smoke. Yes. That must have been what it was. It was smoke. And it was an almost imperceptible smell of smoke. It had to be a fire pit giving off this smoke in one of her neighbor’s yards. City people all liked to make fires in their fire pits out in their backyards at night. Just in case it were not a fire pit
Page 19
in the neighborhood giving off this faint smoke, the attic lass went on to walk around this attic taking in sniffs through her nose just in case it were coming from something unthinkable. She wandered about in the dark, bumping into attic stuff, and refusing to turn on the lights. All this time she found this smoke to be still far away and not any stronger as time went by. It was not the unthinkable maybe. She then thought to herself that maybe this smoke was instead from the furnace no doubt running now for the first time of the season here in Wisconsin in the autumn. That made sense. The furnace was on now after having been off all summer long, and the heat was dry and dusty in here because of it. There were no registers in this attic, but there were lots of registers in all the rest of her rooms. No doubt the heat was coming into this attic through that little wooden door from all of those registers in her other rooms. It was not any thing like a worst case scenario. Still she continued experimenting with her nose, walking about in the dark and bumping into things and keeping the lights off. This attic lass still kind of smelled smoke, yet did not really smell smoke. That smoke was not any more evident now that it was prior. Then she got to surmising where else this unconvincing smoke might be coming from. Surely her next-door neighbor’s fireplace had a fire of logs in it. The smoke was coming through their chimney and coming into her attic through the roof. It definitely had a smell of wood fire to it in her nostrils. It could not be that which she was worrying about right now. It had to be a fireplace. Yet she continued to think worries and walk around and bump into all of her stuff in this dark attic and holding on stubbornly to the charms of the dark. After more of this, still the smell of smoke was not any greater. If this were what she was worrying about, surely the smoke would be thick by now. Even yet this smoke was so thin as to be dubious. The attic lass next began to think that there must be a house on fire somewhere on her street. Some unfortunate person had their house on fire and the fire department would be coming along with its flashing lights and its sirens. The blaze was billowing out smoke throughout the whole neighborhood and it was all around Kelley’s attic and coming through the walls into here. It could not be the attic lass’s house that was on fire. Running about frantically and
Page 20
knocking things over and falling down and clinging to the dark like a nocturnal creature, the attic lass began to panic now. Still the smoke was like it were not here. But it was here. The attic lass’s apartment must be on fire!
In fear for her life, the attic lass turned on the attic lights, and she fled the attic, and she ran out of the apartment and down and out of the building and on outside in the real world out front. It was dusk now. She cried up to God, “O Lord!” And she looked up to her apartment in the front. There was no sign of fire or of burning wood or of smoke. She raced to the side of her building and looked up to her apartment. Again here was no sign of her apartment being on fire. She then raced to the other side of her building and looked up to her apartment. Again, her apartment gave no evidence of a fire. She then raced to the back, where her attic was. And she thought to dare to look up at the back wall of her attic.
Behold, young teenagers in the back alley lighting off smoke bombs for innocent diversions!
The smoke that drove her out of the attic was not her house on fire. The smoke that convinced her to leave this attic was just colored smoke bombs whose colored smoke wafted into her attic through that little lattice of an aperture and its screen in that attic’s back wall.
The attic lass stared up at her attic’s back wall up there, and, sure enough, there was no fire consuming it; there was no smoke coming from it; there was no burning of its wood. She prayed up to the Lord in great overwhelming relief, “O God.”
And she fell on her knees in worship of God Almighty on His throne above, and she said, “I repent of my attic lock, stock, and barrel!”
And it was now sunrise of wonderful bright morning.
Just then an angel of God appeared before her here out back as she stared up at the exterior of her attic up there amid her many and penitent thanksgivings to God now in kneeling before God. She trembled before him, but he said, “Fear not, repentant daughter of God. God hears your prayers, and
Page 21
God sees you on your knees, and God feels your gladness. Stand up, my fellow worshiper of God.”
The attic lass stood up. The teenagers neither heard nor saw the angel. And the angel said unto her, “Fair and comely girl dressed in Kelly green, it is written, ‘But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is. For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.’ Mark 13:32-37.”
Kelley Ambergh Greene spoke and said, “O good and wise and powerful angel, all these things I have done here in this attic. And yet I know that I should not have stayed in the attic in doings these things. I had quit reading my Bible. I now promise to get back to reading the Bible. I had quit my praying. I now promise to get back to praying. I had quit going to church. I now promise to get back to going to church. I had quit soul-winning. I now promise to get back to soul-winning. I broke up with my boyfriend. I promise to come back to him if he will forgive and take me back. I broke up with my twin brother. I promise to apologize to him and ask him to forgive me and take me back.”
The angel then said to the attic lass, “There are three reasons for a born-again believer to love the Lord’s appearing in the rapture, O lass in the prom dress. One reason is for the cause of loving one’s disappearing. In this case the saint wants to be raptured in order to leave this sin-cursed Earth and all of its trials behind. Such a saint would say in regard to the rapture this three-word motto: ‘I’m outta here!’ This reason will not earn that Christian the crown of righteousness. Another reason for the born-again believer to love this same rapture is for the cause of one’s appearing. In this case the child of God wants to come Home to Heaven and experience the perfect peace which is only in Heaven of all the universe. He wants to appear in Heaven. And his saying is this three-word motto: ‘I’ve come
Page 22
Home!’ This believer will not earn the crown of righteousness either. And another reason for a Christian to love the imminent rapture is for the cause of the Lord’s appearing. This born-again believer thus is one who wants more than anything else to be with Jesus and to walk with Him and to talk with Him in the garden of Heaven. He wants the Lord God to appear before him. And this saint’s phrase about the rapture is, ‘Fairest Lord Jesus!’ It is this spiritual believer with this heart for the Saviour who does earn the crown of righteousness. This kind of Christian only will earn the crown of righteousness Up in Heaven of all Christians who desire the rapture. He desires the Lord’s appearing for the only right reason.
“Which one of the three am I, O angel of God?” asked Kelley Greene.
“You know, O girl in green,” said the angel.
“All three of them all at once,” said the attic lass.
“Most honestly answered, O saint who desires the rapture,” said the angel.
“Which one am I the most like now, O angel of Heaven?” asked the attic lass.
“You know, O good and humble daughter of God,” said the angle.
“The most the third one, the second most the second one, the third most the first one,” said Miss Kelley Greene.
“Most wisely answered, O repentant Christian woman,” said the angel.
“I do not wish to wear the crown of righteousness on my head in Heaven. If Jesus rewards me with that crown of righteousness, who am I to dare put it on my head? Would that I could give it right back to Christ Up There the first moments I will have in my eternity with Him in Glory. It is His crown.
It is His glory. It is His praise,” said Kelley Greene.
“Most consummately declared, O attic lass,” proclaimed the angel. “You now have the crown of righteousness waiting for you for right after the imminent rapture. This day you have repented of all of your wrong reasons for the attic. Very well spoken, O woman full of the Holy Spirit of God. Amen
Page 23
and amen. Maranatha, O holy and righteous and just Christian lass. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!”
And just like that the angel ascended back up to Heaven. The older children with the smoke bombs were looking at her in quizzical faces. They saw and heard her talking with an angel whom they saw not and heard not. In explanation Kelley Greene said. “I’ve met an angel.” And the teenagers got back to lighting their smoke bombs of many colors here in the morning. And Kelley left them, her lips singing the hymn, “When We All Get To Heaven.”
And at once the attic lass followed through on all of her promises to the angel. She reconciled with those of whom she had separated from, and she got back to full-time daily quiet time with the Lord quite outside in the yard and the nice fall weather, and she came back to church and visitation once again.
And her attic was no longer her cell in her prison. This attic was now just a humble place of storage. And it no longer tempted her to give it all up for the rapture. And she came to love the rapture soon after only for the Lord’s appearing. And her love for the rapture grew ever stronger as she grew in Christ in Bible study and in prayer and in church and in witnessing. And the attic’s lures of temptations never again brought her back into its sins.
It was about one year later now. God told the former attic lass to ask Pastor if he would hold a special Friday Night Worship in her attic at midnight. Pastor agreed, knowing this to be the will of God. And all of the flock agreed to go and see Miss Greene’s attic that had once been such a haven for her and to worship there as they did at the church building itself. The service started at twelve o’clock A.M. Pastor preached all about Heaven in all of its joys and peace and love and God’s Physical Presence. This most happy sermon lasted one hour, and all the flock were wide awake and listening rapturously, and then it was one o’clock in the morning on Saturday.
Just then the lights went out in the attic, and everybody looked Upward in the dark in utmost
Page 24
and divine anticipation. Just then a voice from Above declared down to the earth in great sovereign authority, saying, “Come up hither!” Just then a whirlwind of a benign tornado arose within the walls of this attic, and everybody knew the great event of prophecy that was now taking place for them and for the rest of the world of Christianity. And then the benevolent Holy Spirit winds snatched them up to the clouds and ever after shall they be with the Lord, and the flock of God had come Home.
And the attic of the attic lass was now empty. Glory to God in the Highest! Thus the blessed hope of the believer come true at this moment.
Page 25
