Visual Playground

A Note for “Rapture Day”

I want to share a personal story in honor of today’s supposedly-claimed “Rapture Day”.

When I was about 10 years old, I had a friend who lived in my neighborhood who was a year older. We lived very close and went to school together. Her family was pretty heavily Christian (and when I say her family I mean her and her single mother) while I was brought up in a pretty traditionally-heavy Jewish family (when I say family I mean me and my single mother). One Christmas, this family invited me over for Christmas dinner along with another neighborhood young woman, who me and the other girl my age, both loved. After dinner, they invited me to midnight mass.

My mom okay-ed it because when she was growing up she had a Christian friend who she would go to Christmas and Easter dinners with and experience the religion from an honorary point of view as well. You know, it was good to be cultured…good to get educated about other faiths.

I had never been in a Church before. I was sucking it all in. My mom told me that I didn’t have to kneel when they knelt and I didn’t have to eat the holy communion. I sat and took it all in, including and especially all the art on the walls. There was a large tapestry on the wall depicting Jesus doing something. What? I didn’t know; so I asked my friend’s mother.

My friend’s mother went on to tell me that the picture represented the story of Revelation. About how one day, all of the Christ believers were going to disappear into thin air and be taken into Heaven for 7 years while all the non-believers were going to be left on earth and the anti-Christ and all his demons were going to be unleashed onto the earth to torture the non-believers for all eternity, and then after 7 years all the believers would be taken to the “New Jerusalem” where they would live in peace for all eternity.

Did I mention I was 10?

This woman didn’t say these things to scare me. She didn’t say these things because she knew my mom would hear her 10 year old Jewish daughter coming home repeating these things and get quite the earfull over the phone next day (which definitely happened). She didn’t say these things to convert me, although maybe she did. She said them matter of factly as if she was talking about what she was going to have for dinner or talking about her day at work.

I started to feel weird…a little scared? a little confused? A lot confused. I obviously did not want to be left to be tortured. I asked (also very matter of factly), “So what do I have to do to not be left?” Answered just as matter of factly, “You just have to accept Jesus as your Savior.”

10. I was 10. I was so young that I didn’t know that that statement meant converting from Judaism. I thought, “Hey Jesus sounds alright. Why not? I can do that and still do what I’m doing with Judasim.” I mean, Jews for Jesus, right? I answered with an optimistic, “Oh!” Her daughter said, “I’m actually really excited for it!” I wanted to be excited too!

But once I was dropped off to my house, and I walked across my lawn to get to my front door, I got very scared. I had all these thoughts running through my mind. All these visions of two men in a field and one could disappear ANY SECOND. I thought about my Judaism. I thought about how warm and happy it made me and how I loved my friends at hebrew school and I loved my teachers there and couldn’t wait for my bat mitzvah. I thought, “How could any of that be bad? How could any of that mean that we all have to suffer eternally?” But I was young and terrified. I walked in hysterically crying to my house at 2 in the morning.

My mom came into my bedroom, looked at her scared-stiff daughter spouting this rant, and she said, “Sweety, you are a good person. As long as you are good to others and and you are a kind and caring person, God with have a seat for you in heaven.” I had trouble believing her. What about all I had just heard?

As years went by, I grew an immature strong dislike for the Christian religion. I thought they were all phonies and all they did was spread negativity. I ended up becoming best friends when I was 13 with a girl who came from a very Christian-observing family as well. I was on my guard, but her family was only full of love. Never once preached to me.

I also had a guitar teacher my senior year of high school who used to inadvertently make comments to me about being Jewish. He clearly thought I was going to hell.

And then I met a lovely girl, maybe one of the loveliest, in college who had a very progressive but very strong Christian love. She really showed me how much beauty one can take from the Christian faith. So much love. So much generosity. What a beautiful soul.

The moral to my rant is this:
I have never forgotten that incident when I was 10. It made a stamp in my judgment about one kind of people and put hate in my heart towards them. The numerous and varying stamps that this May 21 Rapture business is putting in our youth currently has to be just the same for them as it was for me.

I feel bad for our youth at this time. I hope all of the parents out there are doing their best to spread love and acceptance any way they can. I hope everyone everywhere is working to spread that on a daily basis. Because no matter if you’re Christian or Jewish or Smurfish or Pagan, we all feel the same. We all love and hate the same. We all have family and loved ones and pasts and futures. If you ever get stuck on a subway between Brooklyn and Manhattan because they’re “investigating a suspicious package on the tracks”, this will become painfully clear.

There’s a beautiful Jewish expression - “Tikkun Olam”. It means “bettering the world by bettering yourself”. People who preach and force and yell, they’re trying to “better the world” by trying to “better others”. But we can only control ourselves. So let’s be the most loving and generous and caring and accepting person we can be, in hopes that it spreads like wildfire. Maybe that’s “The Rapture”. Maybe “our world” that could be ending is one of hate and violence and difference and by leading by example we can bring about a little peace…a little peace of mind…one mind at a time. Let’s take responsibility for ourselves to help that happen…for the kids’ sake.

Thanks for reading.