And I saw a vision of a gleaming white castle with a narrow footpath leading up to its great white gates. This walkway — extending out from the gates as far as the eye could see — was so worn that it appeared to the eye as a kind of cut-mark several feet deep. And when I asked a nearby angel as to the nature of this Bright Place — and why the path leading up to it was so well-worn, she replied: “This Place is where humans who love the Living Light bring their hearts for Perpetual Safe Keeping.”

For a moment I pondered the significance of such a Place, marveling at its power and promise. As the strength of this impression grew, I spoke out: “Isn’t this something!” And I went on… “So many have come here to leave their love with the Divine that the ground itself has been worn away right up to the gates!”

After my comment I could feel the angel’s attention fall upon me something like a breeze, and I looked up to see her smiling at me.

“The reason the Path is as worn as it is,” she spoke as she looked away towards a person approaching the gates with empty hands, “is because most humans who find their Way here for the first time return time and time again.”

She must have felt my confusion and anticipated my question because before I could even formulate what was racing through my mind she continued almost without pause.

“First they come and leave their hearts here in God’s Good keeping, but then they return… only to take them back again.” She smiled once more and then — almost as an after-thought — said what were to be her last words to me: “It seems that some people must make this journey a thousand times before they actually come to understand that here is where the heart belongs for Good.”

With that the mystery of the well-worn Path was solved, but there was something else that happened in that moment. I can’t be sure, but it seemed as though her smile turned into an unspoken question that moved from her eyes into my own. And that was when the vision ended.