Shadowlight's Lighthouse

1 And when the Bible-thumping internet troll found himself standing on the shore of a Lake of Fire, he cried upwards to God, saying, 2 "why, Lord?? Have I not spread Your pamphlets? Have I not made Your Chosen ones wealthy? I believed in Your Name! Why was I not saved??" 3 And the Lord answered him, in a voice that was loud yet far away, and said, 4 "You only believed in My name, not in My virtues, not in My teachings; 5 and every time you hated someone for their differences, because the flaws of 1st century Judea were mentioned in context in the graven idol you have made of My Holy Scriptures; 6 every time you have told those in mourning that their loved ones burn in Hell; 7 every time you presumed to speak My will, you instead dragged My name through the mud. 8 You have cost Me a thousand hearts that could have turned to Me, had they truly known Me; 9 And what servants you have found, have each done likewise. 10 You wanted a master that tortures and burns, so I have sent you to one. 11 May you serve him as poorly as you have served Me. 12 You reveled in the flames and the smell of brimstone. Now see it for yourself. 13 You hated your neighbors. You will not find them there. 14 This is your earned reward." and the voice was silent 15 and the waves sizzled as they lapped at the shore, and chains rattled in the sulfurous breeze.
(I'm not actually wishing or intending for anybody to be dammed to Hell. I take that too seriously to risk the misunderstanding. I have no intention of ceding any authority to what dark powers might exist. I'm only trying to make a point in language that will be understood by those who need to hear it.)

My city is big enough to have homeless people (particularly since it's the central point for various dried-up state aid services, including mental health services) but small enough that you can recognize most of them after a while... if you look. I don't claim I always do look. One of these recurring figures is an elderly woman in a big black raincoat that drapes over her like a cloak. She walks around with a wheeled metal luggage rack containing a pile of black (read: opaque) plastic trash bags, each tied up tightly. I learned her name a month ago when one of the women from my church was worrying about where Sophia would go during the hurricane, or if anyone had even warned her that it was coming. ... Tonight, I went to the grocery store to buy milk and Sophia was sleeping, sitting on a bench in the vestibule of the store, next to the carts. I didn't want to wake her, because I figured she didn't have much time before the store closed and then they'd (probably) make her leave. I wondered, as I shopped, if there was something I could do for her, without waking her up; but i don't know enough about her situation to know what she really needs. I'm not sure I've ever heard her voice. In the end, I just slid my shopping cart back into the corral as quietly as I could, and said 'God bless you.' just loud enough to be heard, and went out with my groceries into the chilly night, feeling like I was about to cry. (I made my brother cry once, with something I wrote. Perhaps I could do that again, if that would be what made him finally see that liberalism is about the government doing communally those various things that as individuals we know we ought to do but seldom actually choose to do. On the other hand, that was when he stopped reading my writing. I'd hate to see him stop listening to my voice.) ... It's cold enough tonight that I turned on the heat in my apartment, even though heat rises from the two floors below. I sit here drinking tea and I think about those out in the cold tonight, and hope that Christ is out there with them.

An atheist (possibly named Deena Dobkins) asks: What did God do before he created the universe?

The logical answer is: pretty much the same thing the total energy of the entire universe did before the Big Bang. it probably involved wondering if it was too early to get up and make coffee.

The C.S. Lewis answer is (i think): creating other, older universes. God probably has a whole workshop full of them, and when one ends, he builds a new one for that spot on the shelf.

The Mal answer is: Volleyball. Mal will demonstrate this point by playing a betamax videocassette of an animated movie you've never heard of, wherein a child Jesus is playing volleyball with His white-bearded father, while the Holy Spirit referees...
and Jesus says, "hey, Dad, you know what would be good with this? What if we had a beach? We could separate those waters over there from the dry land.....and, um, maybe some other people to play? not that it's not fun with just the three of us."
and the Father smiles and says, "sure, son. knock yourself out."
and the son goes over and says, "okay... let's have some light."
and the father gestures and there's light, and the son says "thanks, that's good." and he packs the cloud of yellow glowing stuff into a yellow glowing ball-shape and moves it closer like a lamp.

....creation of man, fall of man, ("now it's all ruined!" "it's okay, son, maybe we can fix it."), the covenant with Abraham ("wait! ....we changed our mind. Don't kill your son, Abraham. We'll find someone else."), the Incarnation ("You made them male and female. If you're going to become one of them, you need to have a mother. So, look closely. choose carefully. Who will it be?") and the Resurrection ("I know I can't fix everything for them. but let me go back and make sure they understand.") At each point, it's clear to the viewer that the father is using the son's world-building as a learning experience for the son.
Although the movie appears to have been taped off tv, the only commercials are for the Church of Latter-Day Saints (circa early 80s, "Don't let the magic pass you by" ad campaign) and Sea Monkeys.

from Wikipedia: "The name "Valentine" (Priest Valentio) does not occur in the earliest list of Roman martyrs, compiled by the Chronographer of 354. The feast of St. Valentine was first established in 496 by Pope Gelasius I, who included Valentine among those "... whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose acts are known only to God." As Gelasius implied, nothing was known, even then, about the lives of any of these martyrs."

For all the unknown saints and forgotten gods, whose works are countless and nameless in the brief and tattered histories of Man, keep them in Your sight; for all who seek love, and have not found it (may the One Source give them guidance and courage to seek further and better and wiser); for all who are prisoners of love, abused or neglected, afraid to leave or unwilling to break their half of a disgraced vow (may the One Source give them comfort in their distress and courage to break free); for the souls of those who have died in Despair, lift them into Your light; for young lovers, grant them the wisdom they do not know they lack; for those who have lost a loved one, comfort them in their grief, and give them greater faith to know that in Your embrace, all hearts will be mended and all who knew Love will be reunited.

for she who is called the Beautiful One, God's Promise to the Clan of the Gray Home, for God is Gracious; May she have wisdom as well as beauty, strength of spirit as well as grace; may she never lack caring protectors in times of need; may she know truth when she sees it, and may it be her companion through life; spare her from the snares of the unkind; May her years on the Earth be plentiful and a blessing to those around her. Amen.