The day started like any other day. People all over the planet awakened to the sun rise, sent their kids off to school, went to work, walked for their daily water, logged onto their computers, made love to their partners, prayed for strength to get through another day.
Nations too, in the form of their leaders, their policies, their laws, greeted the new day, some with proclamations against their global neighbors, some to detail a natural disaster, how many died, how many missing, some to condemn the actions of their own citizenry, and to name the names of those who needed to be purged.
For better or worse, it would be the last day that began in that fashion.
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Millions of miles away, so far away that their existence was unknown to the inhabitants of that planet, a conference was about to end. The attendees had reviewed the troves of information that had been gathered about that planet, called Earth by its inhabitants, a name which came into use only 1500 or so years in the past, a mere blink of an eye in terms of the age of the species of the men who lived there, not to mention as compared to the age of the planet itself.
Earth, which derived from words used to convey dirt or soil which themselves indicated an understood difference between the solid ground below and the heavens above.
A primitive understanding for a primitive species, yet a species that had developed exponentially in terms of its technological advances, its ability to escape its atmosphere, and had begun a rudimentary exploration of the skies.
As the attendees of this gathering were reminded, along with the spark of ingenuity that had been implanted there all those centuries ago, the true nature of life's purpose was also embedded through a similar spark as provided by a number of teachers whose lessons were used to create manuals from which guidelines were distilled into simple instructions, simple enough for even a species still in the early stages of their evolution.
Sadly, like many other species, far too many had institutionalized the lessons of the teachers by creating organizations that used those lessons to control rather than inspire, for material gain rather than spiritual advancement.
So now, as had been done for millennia, a decision had to rendered.
To intervene.
But more critically, how to intervene, or to be more precise, which of the approved interventions to utilize.
While fierce, the debate was civil, as the participants understood the gravity of their decision, and the responsibility that generations of their ancestors had placed into their hands.
And while the options were limited, the degree of each was varied so there needed to be consensus, not just on the overall action plan, but on the specific details of that choice.
In the end, compassion ruled the day, as it so often did with this conclave. But a compassion that included an alteration of the dynamics which drove the nations in their interactions with each other. A modification that would not be easy for those on Earth to accept, especially those who governed countries that had strayed the furthest from the main principle, the universal principle, that had been revealed via the most spiritually advanced of the Earthlings.
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Sometime around mid afternoon on the continent they called Europe, the first effects of the intervention were felt. There had been an ongoing conflict on that continent between two neighboring countries whose populations had far more in common than not. It was at the various fronts of this conflict that the weapons stopped working, from the most powerful missiles to the smallest of hand guns. Suddenly, nothing that could be used to injure or kill another person could be fired.
As news spread in all geographic directions, nations as disparate as those where the sun was most strongest thereby creating a darker version of the species, to the most powerful one which was currently engaged in destroying small boats as they left the shores of a far less powerful nation, suddenly faced the prospect that all the munitions they had accumulated were now useless.
That might makes right was no longer a viable philosophy.
As was the custom, time to process this new development was afforded. Those on Earth were unaware that this time was part and parcel to the ultimate decision, since how a species employed the time dictated the final step of the intervention. The fact that there were influential voices on Earth which interpreted the elimination of the power of weapons as the possibility that this was divine in nature, amused, but did not factor into the group's deliberations.
The polar opposite of so many of the depictions of the end times which so often included mass death and destruction brought on by man's folly, the prospect that this event, this rendering of weapons as useless, might be the divine intervention that was anticipated, even longed for by those so arrogant to believe that they were among those to be "saved", also amused the members of the conclave, but only so far as an indicator that this species was similar to so many in its interpretation of what was occurring. The final decision was already coming into focus.
At first, those in charge of the great nations who had most enjoyed the privilege of might makes right, experienced denial that the impotence of weapons was real. Some actually fired those in military positions as if it was their fault, and that somehow a new general or cabinet level department head might change reality. Many pointed fingers at their perceived global enemies, which, oddly, seemed to admit that those enemies were so much more powerful and militarily advanced despite the trillions of dollars that had been spent in the past few years to prevent just such an occurrence.
Anger also rose to the surface, anger that the rules of the past where the strong always ruled, were suddenly undercut. Again, a response not unexpected, not outside the range of responses that had been provoked in the past with other nascent species.
Soon, but not as soon as had been witnessed with other species, acceptance of this new reality was faced. While the various religious institutions debated the meaning of what was certainly divine intervention, there was grudging acceptance that a more powerful force was at work.
Proof of God.
There were some, especially those who had used religion for profit and power, who attempted to twist this new reality to their advantage, but in general, Earth's inhabitants slowly began to come together, to begin thinking with a global perspective rather than with a national or ethnic, or racial viewpoint.
There was a peace, if you will, although some of the world's leaders, especially those who led the countries which had been the most powerful, had spent the most resources on war (although they called it "defense"), who shook the hands of their counterparts and smiled for the cameras, some of those leaders convened behind closed doors to discuss plans which would guarantee that their vision of this new reality would win the day. Even in this position of weakness, they plotted to hold all the cards.
Is a peace born of mutual dread of an external threat as valid as one which emanates from a spiritual awakening?
Can a plan which merges disparate cultures, values, priorities to reduce, perhaps even eliminate violence as the overriding tool to tout one's superiority, be judged the same as one which espouses an elimination of violence through mutual respect, even if its success masks the real intention of those concocting it?
Of course, the members of the conclave, present and past, had vast experience with the myriad of reactions that such interventions provoked, could tell which were steeped in honesty and integrity, and which hid secret plans within plans. But still, they waited, gave h]the Earthlings time to adapt to their new reality.
And then, as pre-determined by the conclave, the weapons came alive as suddenly as they had ceased to function.
The head secretary of the sub committee formed after the initial conclave, noted the day and time, then closed the book on Earth. There would be one more entry, sometime in the future, depending on how the inhabitants of Earth responded to regaining the power of their weapons.
That entry would note the beginning of a new reality for Earth's people, the start of a journey where they would be recognized as a community within the universe's alliance of species which had disavowed violence, which had finally learned the lessons bestowed on them by their own advanced spiritual masters, themselves inspired by the Force which provided that spark of spirituality for all species.
Or, and this was at best a 50-50 possibility, the last entry would mark the destruction of this iteration of the inhabitants of Earth. Not because there would be a purging of humanity through an edict of the conclave, but because that was the inevitable fate for an species that did not learn the lesson, did not heed the warning that the use of weapons, and the philosophy of might makes right, always ends in self destruction.
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As a rule, I don't believe that humans are all that perceptive when it comes to recognizing divine intervention. Frankly, I don't believe in it, but were I to put any credence to whether there is an Almighty presence in the universe that intervenes in the events of the planet, let alone one person out of eight billion, I would bet that humanity would not recognize what were actual intercessions.
And, if there was a consensus that an action was divine in nature, as many believed in the above story, I doubt it would be interpreted properly.
A case in point is climate change. All the data is there. All the signs from nature or God are screaming at us, the once in a lifetime weather disasters that seem to occur every year, the record heat, the dramatic swings in temperature, the ever increasing instances of wild fires, droughts, massive storms.
Perhaps all of those events are indications that God is warning us to do better, yet are ignored by so many, whether that ignorance is tied to protecting the status quo which has benefited a minority at the expense of the majority, avarice above all, or whether it belies the fact that many Earthlings talk a good talk about believing in a god but don't believe in a judgement that goes beyond earthly possessions, as if your seat in heaven is determined by how many toys you have, not by one's humanity.
If so questioned, I might even conjecture that COVID was an intervention by God. Certainly there is a wide-spread belief in the story of Noah, and how God washed the Earth clean of those who did not believe, saving Noah, his family and a pair of each animal species. While I am fine with the Noah story as a lesson in faith, I don't believe it is real history.
Which makes the idea that the COVID pandemic which killed over 8 million people across the globe, could have been sent our way by God as a warning. Or perhaps as an opportunity for everyone on Earth to unite, to act as one to reduce the spread, reduce the death.
As it turned out, we couldn't even do that in America, let alone across the globe.
Were there some who considered COVID a divine intervention, perhaps a punishment for turning our backs on the Almighty? Yes.
Sadly, many of them used the disease as a way to separate us, to blame COVID on certain people for their behavior, or skin color, or even their version of religion.
So again, a chance for unity was destroyed by those who only wish to use god as a way to control, to accumulate power, to tell us who to hate.
To be brutally honest, I am certain that if Jesus came back today, were there stories of a virgin birth emanating from the middle East, and a man who claimed to be the Son of God, stories of his sermons, possible miracles, his goodness, his compassion for the less fortunate, he would be treated even worse than he was 2000 years ago. And could you imagine if God decided to send his daughter this time?
No, signs from God, even if they exist, would have no chance at being interpreted today as the real deal.
That being said, this is not the first story I have written where Earth experiences an external intervention, or is united through the belief that an extraterrestrial force requires all countries to band together.
Over 15 years ago, I wrote a story called The Archives which described a society that had achieved a level of global peace through a lie. A story in which the powers to be understood that without an external, planet wide threat, Earth would never be united. And so they created one. Here is a link to that story.
https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2010/06/archives.html
Then, about seven and a half years ago, I wrote a story in which there is a perceived divine intervention. A switch in which a percentage of Earthlings suddenly wake up to find they are a different gender and/or race than when they went to sleep.
Here is a link to that story, The Switch Back
https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2018/10/the-switch-back.html
Perhaps, in the end, it doesn't matter if our species ever evolves past the use of violence as a conflict remediation tool. Only that individuals do so. Which may mean the "the meek shall inherit the earth" is more about the next life than the present one.
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