the way to the New Jerusalem

There were numerous visitors at my parents’ house and we were all preparing to attend a service at the church of my childhood. These visitors had just recently converted to the faith, however, in retrospect they didn’t look anything like people who converted to my particular denomination. Regardless, without a second thought I accepted them as converts and we hosted them for the night. There was much discussion about the next day and the things that needed to be prepared. They had brought corn which they didn’t know how to prepare. I offered to get up early the next day to prepare it for them. The next morning was busy as a hive as people were getting up and about. I was preparing the corn but because I was doing all sorts of other things in the meantime, I burnt it and nearly half of it had to be tossed out. I was still not “ready” (whatever ready was) when it was time to leave for the service but went with the group anyway, planning to return to finish up later. We left on foot and met a large group of people also on foot journeying toward the meeting house, the church of my childhood. There were many more people than I had expected. There were Mennonites from my old church as well as all sorts of other people I didn’t recognize. But one thing I noticed was that the crowd that journeyed with us was very colorful. When we got to the church building, I made my excuses and began the journey back to my house but I ran into some trouble a short distance away from the church along with other meeting goers. There was a busy railway system with multiple tracks blocking my path. The trains and the people on them were as colorful if not more colorful than the crowd that we had come to church with. Some beings on the trains weren’t necessarily people either. One creature looked like a wookie, except that their coats were of brightly colored plums. It was certain that nobody on the trains was going to church. They were traveling elsewhere and this remote location was only a leg in their journey. There wasn’t even a crossing or a stop through which I could pass safely. I conversed briefly with the others attempting to cross. They acknowledged the danger, advising me to be careful. They even yelled at me to stop as I attempted to dodge across the tracks. I avoided getting run over by a train passing at a very rapid speed.