ONE

Rayford Steele had to admit that the first time he saw a bear and then a leopard moving about in public, something niggled at him to keep his distance, to not show fear, to make no sudden movements. But when he saw the bear and the cat cooperate to climb a tree and make a meal of leaves and branches, he was emboldened to trust God for the whole promise. It wasn't just he who had become a vegetarian. It was true of all former carnivores.

Rayford moved quietly to the trunk of the tree and watched the animals cavort and eat. And when a branch fell, he himself tasted the leaves. He enjoyed fruit and vegetables more, but he could see what the creatures found in the plants. He trusted Christ to calm him when the great leopard leaped down and nuzzled his leg the way a house cat would, purring, then sitting to rest.

As for the bear, it ignored him and stretched out beside the big cat. Talk about a whole new world.

Rayford deduced that the sun was brighter without being hotter, because Tsion Ben-Judah taught that its light was somehow enhanced by the ever-present glory of Jesus. A simple contraption out in the open allowed Rayford to concentrate the light through a magnifier and heat vegetables he and Irene and Raymie had gathered for a special feast. Irene had made butter from milk she had collected from a cow, so when everyone had assembled, they were met with steaming piles of fresh produce, drenched in butter.

And when they had eaten their fill, they retired outside to hear Irene's account of the marriage supper of the Lamb.

Like everyone else, Cameron Williams was fascinated with all that had gone on and what was yet to come. Of course, as a late martyr, he had spent very little time in heaven—just long enough to reunite with his wife, Chloe, and look forward to seeing their son back on earth at the Glorious Appearing. Now he anticipated the special dinner where his mother-in-law was to tell yet another story of Jesus.

No one called Cameron Buck now, because, he said, "there's nothing to buck here." And strange about Cameron and Chloe's relationship was that they still loved each other, but not romantically. Their entire hearts' desires were on the person of Jesus and worshiping Him for eternity. In the Millennium, they would live and labor together with Kenny and raise him, but as there would be no marrying or giving in marriage, their relationship would be wholly platonic.

"It's bizarre," Chloe told Cameron. "I still love and admire and respect you and want to be near you, but it's as if I've been prescribed some medicine that has cured me of any other distracting feelings."

"And somehow that doesn't insult me," Cameron said. "Does my feeling the same offend you?"

She shook her head. Her mind, like his, must have been on Jesus and whatever He had for them for the rest of time and eternity.

"Do you realize, Chlo', that we still have to raise Kenny in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and see to it that he decides for Christ?"

Only true believers and innocents had survived the Tribulation and the sheep-and-goats judgment to make it into the kingdom. "How many children of the Tribulation must there be," Chloe said, "who still have to choose Christ over living for themselves?"

"Children of the Tribulation," Cameron said. "I like that."

"God has been impressing on me that Kenny will be only one of many children in our charge."

"Me too, Chloe. I find that amazing."

As they talked, it became clear that the Lord had shown them both that their recompense for giving their lives and—in essence—losing their son for a time because of that would be the blessing of a hundredfold more children to love. Cameron could only imagine where these children would come from, but his old mentor Tsion Ben-Judah reminded him that "a hundredfold" in the Scriptures very likely meant many more than a hundred.

"I cannot imagine the havoc unbelievers could wreak in this new world. I hope God grants us the strength to do with them what He wants."

"Oh, you know He will."

One morning Cameron was praising Jesus with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs when he noticed Kenny was not playing alone. Half a dozen other kids—all seven or under, of course, because youngsters alive at the time of the Rapture had been taken and returned as grown-ups at the Glorious Appearing—had joined him and were getting acquainted.

In a flash it came to Cameron to call this group COT (Children of the Tribulation), and as negative as the name sounded, it didn't grate on him. It was merely fact. Here were representative children born after the Rapture who had survived to enter the kingdom. As the thousand years progressed, of course, kids would be born who could still be called children of the Tribulation, because someone in their ancestry had to have lived through it.

Copyright © 2007 by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins.