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Raymond McRae, another member of Weatherview’s population, sat in Sable’s Diner covertly looking around at the other patrons.  He couldn’t put his finger on it but something was different today.  Colder outside, more crowded than usual.  Racially the place was different.  There appeared to be people of all different races gathered there this morning.  Normally it was mostly white.

Raymond was originally from New York so the multiracial crowd didn’t catch his attention right away.  As he sat there watching everyone a peculiar revelation took place.  If he kept his eyes on someone for more than a few seconds he was able to sense their exact race and nationality.  He wasn’t using powers of intuition or even observation to ascertain this, the information was simply revealed to him.  Congolese, Armenian, Kurdish, African-American, Maori, Cherokee or other Native Americans, Jewish…  Nearly everyone in the diner belonged to a different race or nationality, all of which had been systematically oppressed at one time or another.  Being amidst so many representations of persecuted groups made Raymond uncomfortable.  He had previously worked on Wall Street and although he was worth over two million dollars he’d never given much to charity.  He wondered why this was happening.  Maybe it was some kind of test and he should try to fix things somehow.  Maybe the future of civilization depended on him making peace among the races for all time.  Approaching a diverse table of four enjoying their morning meal, he politely offered to pay their bill.  One of the men stood up and shouted something in his native language and gestured aggressively for Raymond to leave them alone.  He acquiesced and returned to his own table, ordered more coffee, and quietly pondered the meaning of this.  Never had he been very racist, so it didn’t make sense for this to be a sign from God about being less discriminatory.  He hadn’t been generous either, but what was he supposed to do, sell his stocks and give the money to charity?  He’d already given a little money to random people on the street.  Maybe this whole thing is random, what’s going on at Sable’s and everything else happening in Weatherview.

New York life had been busy, and he had moved here to have some peace without abandoning city life entirely.  It seemed like the perfect compromise.  Little had he known this would be the strangest place he could imagine.  As far as Raymond knew no one outside county lines was experiencing anything out of the ordinary.  Whenever residents talked to people outside of town they could never get a definitive yes or no about anything heavenly taking place.  The people they asked would merely give a vague reply and the conversation would drift to some other topic.  Miraculous dreams were occurring only in Weatherview, everywhere, or somewhere in between.

“Excuse me,” he said to a waitress.  “What’s going on with the crowd today?”

“Oh, we’re a little busier than usual.  Can I get you anything else?  Refill your water?”

“Yes, please.  You don’t see anything unusual about the crowd in here?”

“Not really.”  She glanced around and shrugged her shoulders.  “People are people.”

“That man over there is Tutsi.  His group was subjected to ethnic polarization and extreme persecution in Rwanda.”

“If you say so.  I’ll be right back with your water.”

There had to be a reason for this.  Whatever it was, he wouldn’t get an answer just yet.

Weatherview was a midwestern city.  The settlers moved in from the East while the weather swept in from the West.  The fur trade financed the early days of the town and as more people headed westward, the more the city prospered.  To stay and make your home in a place or to keep on travelling was a decision everyone in the Midwest had to make in those days.  Calling a place home when your destiny might be over the next river, plain, or mountain range was difficult.  How we answer questions like those is what shapes our destinies.  So many questions we are forced to ask have no clear or certain answers.  Often a path will lead to two choices that balance out when you weigh them, a perfect fifty-fifty split.  You may as well flip a coin at that point because there is no one right answer.  The residents here are approaching many such decisions.  Weatherview is putting its people to the test, separating heaven from everything else in creation.  One would hope to be on the right side at such a time as this.