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the lips on lips. It was the breathing in of life, and with that breath, the fragile infant became a living soul.
    A tiny wail fractured the night, and Lilly gasped, relieved.
    “My Adam is born,” Eve whispered to Lilly, her hand still resting on the girl’s shoulder.
    A thunderous cheer arose alongside the baby’s life-affirming cry, and the rippling sounds were carried by innumerable spirit messengers out to the edges of the cosmos.
    “These know the portals and windows built into the fabric of the worlds,” Eve said. “They travel now to bear the news, good tidings of the Father.”
    Three massive personages approached the gathering, two of them from opposite ends of the wall and one from the darkness beyond.
    “Who are they?”
    “Cherubim!” Eve stated respectfully. Each of them dwarfed the colossal wall of Eden, but as they approached, their size changed until they were not much taller than the rest. Still, with theirapproach Lilly felt that she was shrinking. Their feet seemed not to touch the ground, and she sensed the vague movement of massive, unseen wings.
    The two from the wall lowered their heads, but the third waited a moment before it also bowed. Its stunning crown radiated twelve gemstones splaying out a rainbow of colors, like a tent pitched above the gathering. To this one Eternal Man spoke.
    “Look and see, Anointed Cherub. Here in my arms and nursing at my breast is the highest expression of my creation. These hold dominion over every created thing, the seen and the unseen.”
    Questions tumbled through her mind, but Lilly was frozen in the moment, helpless in the grasp of exhilaration, drawn to the newborn for reasons she couldn’t explain.
    The Angel’s voice was warm, the tone controlled. “Adonai, this gathering of earth’s dust? Does Your breathing into dirt give it new meaning? They may Your image and likeness bear, but they are fragile, weak, and therefore . . . inconsequential. You are the One Who set the terms, Your nature inviolable, so why have You now revealed Yourself in an everlasting weakness? You would place our hope and life in this . . . this helpless bit of living matter?”
    Lilly took offense. “All babies are weak,” she said through her teeth.
    “As we remain,” Eve countered gently. Lilly glanced up at her, but Eve didn’t explain.
    “Surprised?” said Eternal Man to the Cherub. His look of motherly affection and fatherly kindness was pure and right and filled with Love. “It is My nature to surprise. So will you, lovedand Anointed Cherub, perform an honor?” He lifted His infant to the Archangel. Lilly noticed the baby’s cord still connected him to the earth.
    For a moment the mighty being looked puzzled. “Machiara?”
    Eternal Man nodded.
    Lilly felt Eve’s hand grip her shoulder a little tighter. Instead of taking the child, the Anointed Cherub drew from somewhere in its swirling garments a small, razor-sharp dagger and held it up. She gasped. It would take nothing to slit the infant’s throat and prove the fragility of this being.
    But instead the Archangel severed the infant’s cord, and Adonai drew the baby into His chest. The child slept peacefully in the arms of God’s good keeping.
    “Thank you!”
    “I am forever honored,” was the astonished Angel’s response as it examined the knife. Tiny threads of bloody flesh hung from the razor’s edge. “This is the best and highest of Your creating?” The softly spoken question was clear even as the blade was wiped clean against the radiant vestments and returned to the hidden sheath.
    “Shining One, there are mysteries hidden from even you.” Adonai stood and rocked the baby in His arms, his once-white garment soiled with dirt and blood and water. “This being requires no proof to love. They are bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, and for them my everlasting Love and affection will never be diminished or darkened. They cannot drift into unworthiness.”
    Lilly’seyes and throat