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He says,, still laughing, "Oh but I am already your best friend, the best friend any of you could ever hope for, and now you are here with me to be rescued from shit," "Can you believe your ears everyone?" says Carl, also laughing, "such language coming from the mouth of the Lamb of God." "My apostle Matthew was simply too scandalized and embarrassed to write down word for word in his twenty-third chapter the real words that I was hurling at the Pharisees, scribes and other unfortunate vipers." "Saviour with a potty mouth?", muses Sarah. "I just came out here to ask if there are any food allergies here among you..." "The all knowing, the omniscient God has to ask us that!" says Lawrence sarcastically. "alright then, smartass", says our Lord..  "You have an avocado allergy that was diagnosed five years ago, February 12, to be exact.  You break into hives." "very impressive", he replies. Says Sarah, "If you already know this, Lord, why do you ask?" "For the very same reason why I would have you all pray, even though I already know what you are needing before you even ask...."   "And Sarah, you have an allergy to strawberries ever since you were five years old.  Erik had a mild allergy to peanuts as a child but has outgrown it.  And now that I have done your work for you, please excuse me again while we get to work on feeding your hungry little mouths." "Who ever would have thought that Jesus and his mom and dad would be cooking us dinner", says Carl. "Well, he did cook his disciples breakfast on the Galilee lakeshore", say I, if I remember correctly the account in John's Gospel of the Resurrection. "They were having fish, weren't they?" says Francois. "And I was hoping Jesus was a vegetarian", says Sarah. "Poor little fishies", says Carl.  "Aw!" "I wonder what they're preparing for us", says Erik. "Maybe something Middle Eastern", wonders Lawrence. "I would love some humous right now", sayd Sarah. "And eggplant dip", says Erik. "How are you, Caspar?" say I. "I am very tired, " says he.  "I think soon I would like to sleep." "Please try to stay awake for dinner, darling", chides Stella, "It should be a wonderful experience.  Dinner prepared by the most holy hands ever...." "So you are going to be living here, Caspar", says Carl.  "Full time and permanently, it looks like." "And us as well", says Stella, gesturing with her head towards her still comatose brother, who remains upright in his chair, his eyes closed, while the angelic Lan still stands there at his side.  Her hand has not moved from his shoulder. "Lan, that is your name?" says Sarah. "It is one of my many names", she answers, though I am still unsure of their gender.  "For this age I am called Lan, though our Lord, and men and women have had other names for me down through the ages." "What other names?" "I am also called Gabriel, when I visited and announced to the young virgin that she would give birth to the Messiah, our Saviour. "You are the Archangel Gabriel!" she almost shrieks. "I have many names, my beloved child.  When the spirit rests on me I then become the Holy Wisdom of God." "How old would you be?"  she says, bashfully, "If you don't mind me asking." "When the remotest ancestors of your kind were beginning to migrate out of what they now call Africa, that is when our Lord sang me into existence.  We knew already what  threat your kind would pose to the rest of the earth, because already had you fallen from the grace that breathed you into being, so our lord summoned more help to come to the planet's aid." "That would have been more than a hundred thousand years ago." "It seems only like yesterday."  There is something wonderfully sardonic and playful, but infinitely wise and loving about Lan's way of speaking to Sarah, and to the rest of us.  Like a patient and humorous teacher tutoring some very slow pupils. "Sang you into existence.  Who?" "He is here with his blessed parents preparing your dinner." "Jesus." "But who else?"  Lan is smiling,  her, or maybe, his hand still resting on Sven Lindstrom's shoulder.  "For he shall save his people from their sins..."