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duties.
    However, I will admit that at the beginning of my sojourn with Billy Allman, I began to count the days and spend the hours of his slumber in contemplation of his life’s unfolding events. There was something about him that caused me to ponder time in a new way.
    Time hinders the humans because their lives are lived on two slopes. Their early lives consist of the upward climb to what they are trying to attain. They press on through education and strive to reach a point where they feel satisfied, where they have “enough,” always just beyond their grasp. They neglect what they say is important and strive for sand that so easily slips through their fingers.
    The crest of the hill is always unseen. And as the descent begins—indeed, even at the end of days when the eyes give way and the hearing diminishes—humans continue to grasp for what they cannot have. “If You were a just God, You would give me what I ask.” In that cry, they show that it is not the glory of God they desire, but the want and need in their own heart.
    In the mind of the enemy, if they can push a human away from Truth, whatever the means, then they succeed in the continued separation of the created from the Creator. If that human is a follower of the Way, if he possesses a real faith that casts his entire being on the goodness and mercy of God, the evil one will make every attempt to thwart that life and bring it to naught. To discourage and keep that person disconnected from Life. Get him to settle for much less than what the Creator desires for each of His children.
    It was along this striving, undulating path that Billy’s father was brought, both by physical and emotional turmoil, to the end. I heard his hacking cough during the day, when I would occasionally observe him sitting alone in the front room, the gas heater turned on high in hope of getting warmth to the bone. Nothing warmed him. He brooded over the past and choices made, speaking to no one.
    I did not notice the enemy’s approach at first, for I was focused on Billy. Call it complacency if you must.
    The enemy congregated around Billy’s father, egged him on, whispered to him about his lack of value, his lack of faith, and how everything would be much better if he were not in the picture. They accused him about his older son. The man began to believe he was worthless.
    Nothing could have been further from the truth, of course. That boy needed him. Though he felt like half a man, he was everything to the boy, and I wondered if events that would proceed later in Billy’s life would prove that postulate true.
    When I think of the differences between the way their Father in heaven works with them and the way the evil one tries to use them for his own selfish ends, it astounds me that more humans cannot see the ruse. At every turn, the Creator has endeavored to lead and guide His creation into Truth and Knowledge, but in the corner of those turns has been the enemy seeking to detour humans and cloud their thinking, twisting the good things the King has offered into diabolical traps. The evil one is crafty, and he is every bit the lion seeking to devour.
    I dispatched a message to my superior and gave a full report of the enemy’s activity. He sent a return message that I was to be on guard but I was not to intervene in any extraordinary way. I was instructed not to risk myself in combat against these forces and to focus on my charge.
    Of course, this caused me to think about my actions long ago at the flood. If I had not acted, Billy would have been spared the trauma of seeing his father on the day the demons won. But he would have also missed the time they had together after the flood.
    The room took on a palpable darkness, even to Billy, for I saw him several times as he approached and then turned away, as if he could perceive something amiss. Each time I found the enemy at the father’s bedside or next to the rickety chair by the gas