The Abandoned

Our ships reached their star system and found us welcomed warmly as if we were long lost brothers and sisters.  We were immediately in awe of their civilization that actually merited the designation.  They were almost perfectly civilized.  As we toured their planet we found no sign of war or conflict of any kind, not even arguments.  We could not find any evidence of poverty or class differences.  Our hosts assured us that while there were individual differences in intelligence, skill and training, no one lacked for anything including respect.  Indeed, everyone we met seemed to be satisfied, fulfilled and happy.

Their cities were wonders of architecture and engineering, with towering building and green parks everywhere.  There was light and space for everyone.  We were allowed to inspect their infrastructures, transportation systems, communication systems, agricultural systems, hospitals, and homes.  We were treated to art and history, theater, music and dance.  We ate delicacies and drank sublime infusions.  These new friends seemed incredibly open to every question we asked.  Their world seemed to be a near perfect balance of technology and humanity, and we were amazed that their whole planet seemed like a garden or a park with all kinds of organisms moving peacefully under pristine clear skies.

We learned that they had no prisons, no security forces or police.  Offenders were forgiven and embraced.  They did not know violence and had no need for weapons.  We wondered what defenses they had.  They seemed to understand that there could indeed be a threat from others, but they were willing to face what ever fate would be theirs.  They accepted the possibility of enslavement or extinction.

We asked them how they were able to be so stoic.  How did they build this great civilization?  To this inquiry they recounted a story that seemed so familiar at first.

God, they told us, had created their world and placed their first parents in a garden that he planted for them.  They disobeyed a commandment and brought the consequences of death and eternal hell to all generations.  God thought about providing a savior for his people, but decided they were not worth the great price and abandoned them to their fate.  Generations passed under the great guilt, shame and loneliness brought by their first parents' sin.  Then a Teacher rose among them and reasoned that if they were all going to hell, this life needed to be made into the only heaven they would ever know.  They needed to live in love with everyone.  They needed to be grateful for everything, and to share everything with everyone.  And when they died and went to hell, the Teacher said,
every brother and sister, every friend would be there to greet them.  Forever, whatever would be their fate, they would be together.

Our hosts on this distant planet explained that though they had been abandoned, they went ahead and built their world on the benevolence they wanted to feel from God.  Through that benevolence they found happiness and created happiness for all.

Some our crew wept when they heard this story and awkwardly tried to embrace our new friends and tell them of our God and Redeemer, and His great atoning love for all.

They told us they were very happy for us.