Balaam's donkey

I live a rather modest life. I'm only a mere pack-mule. I don't get much attention. If not for the sorcerer, I wouldn't have food or water. He takes care of me. I carry his loads around. I carry him where he goes. When he is summoned to cast a curse or a blessing upon a people, I carry him. I consider him my faithful friend. He is the one who cares most deeply about me. The house smells of burnt goat flesh much of the time as he makes his sacrifice to his gods. I am deeply aware there is a God but I feel much darkness around this place. Even though I know him to be a faithful and true friend to me, I feel like my life is missing something.

Here we are, on the road again. He has been summoned by another man to curse this new nation that is emerging. They have wandered out of Egypt from their own slavery. The Egyptians were so embarrassed about the way this people escaped from right underneath the Sphinx's nose that they have written it out of their annals entirely! Surely people will deny the story as a result but this faithful pack-mule knows a lot better. A wise ass is clearly much more learned than a foolish young colt! I have not an inkling what these men hate so much about this seemingly puny nation on the rise. Though I suspect they have a feeling it will become to serve as a stumbling block to many foolish colts further down the road. What do I know though? I'm just an old donkey.

It's a usual day but there is something different on this walk. The darkness that I feel usually emanating from my master's villainous debaucheries seems to have sifted away. It's almost as if it cannot dwell in the presence of what is filling the once void of my master's energies. There is something unusually holy and...

"YEE-HAW!" I see it! It's a glorious light that has filled the roadway! A magnificent being has descended upon the trail! I try to look into its eyes but I am blinded! I can't see anything right now but I know I saw a sword raised. A sword a cinder with the holiest fire from the highest of the Heavens! I have never seen a fire like this before and I have seen Balaam sacrifice numerous goats upon the roaster! I quickly veer from the road so that my poor master is not hewn into several blocks of molten ash. But he is kicking me back onto the trail!

"YEE-HAW!" This time I yell toward Balaam. Can you not see the doom that is going to come upon you if you insist on continuing on this path? Surely you must see it! I am trying to warn you not to. He cannot hear me. I am only a mule. Nothing impressive. I cannot talk. I cannot form words. Maybe if I communicate to this being and...WHAP!...OW! That hurt! Why did you take your whip out on your old friend? You've never done that before, Balaam! Why now? I am trying to save your life from this being that has its wrath turned against you!

"YEE-HAW!" I cry toward the angel this time. Oh, please, tell me why can my master not see the present danger he is in? Give him the faith to hear me. Give him the eyes to see you.

Your master has not looked in the right places before. You have always known me. You have known the emptiness of his gods. That is why you can see me. That is why you love your master even as he beats you. True love is to lay one's life down for his friends. Now speak, donkey.

"Balaam! You can't proceed on this road! See? Open your eyes! What have I done to make you beat me these three times?"

He shouts angrily back toward me. "You have made a fool of me! If I had a sword in my hand I would kill you now!"

"But master, we have known each other for years. Am I not your own donkey whom you continue to ride this day? Have I ever done this to you before?"

"No..." My master is caught off guard but he stops beating me. He looks ahead. I can tell he now has seen what I have seen before. He acknowledges the authority of the angel and he bows before the holy angel of the Lord.

"This donkey who has served you these many years has saved your life today. You are forever indebted to his grace. Why have you beaten him? I oppose your path because it is reckless. The donkey saw me and he turned away. Had he gone forward, I would have raised my sword against you and I surely would have ended your life!"

"Oh, I have sinned against my beloved friend! The one who has served me and has carried me every where I go to this day! Forgive me. I had not known you were standing on the road to block my path. If it pleases you not, I shall return from whence I cam from."

"You shall go with the men you are intent on going with but you will only be able to speak what I put into your mouth."

Then the angel of the Lord looked toward me. And the angel of the Lord bowed to me. I knelt before its holy presence. Who was I, a mere donkey, to be acknowledged by the Most High God? And yet if God can speak through me, if God can show himself to me, and if God can look upon my most minute deeds and still find a poor, hapless, donkey like myself to be of such honorable nature, then surely, one day, he will ride upon one of my descendants himself!