New heavens.

″There will be a new heaven and a new earth.” The pastor begins his sermon with the same repeated quote of bible verse and applies it to our life here on Mars, praising the fulfillment of scripture.

I sit among our gathered few, our small congregation of believers, nodding in unison, listening to the same Sunday sermon we’ve heard from our youth on Earth. Five years ago, we all made the grand journey, the trip of faith, following the brave , God-appointed entrepreneurs and scientists who left for life on new frontiers, for life on Mars. For five, long , hard years , we have tried to turn this dusty desert into our own utopia, our own promised paradise in the heavens but it’s taking longer than anyone could have envisioned.

The Earth is doomed the pastor continues, judgement day is sure to arrive!

We respond with well-timed and obligatory amens.

War, crime, violence, hatred.....the pastor denounces earthly sins, but life on Mars will be different he says as we are the blessed few.

I gaze out of the small cubed window our of church cubicle, into the inky blackness of our planet and I remember a different Earth. I think of the turquoise of the sea , the lush green of the forests, I remember lazy days on the beach, the beach parties, the sunsets,the music, the art, the aromas

of wonderful foods, the varied cultures, the celebrations. I remember it all ;the good and the bad.

My heart pulls deep inside me, a swell of deep-tissue yearning and I gasp for breath to suppress it.

Every day I look out from the observation deck and every day Earth remains a serene globe of swirling colours fixed in the black void of space.

We’ve all heard rumours, whispered talk in dark corridors, that the war to end all wars on Earth was actually averted. Peace talks prevailed and now all countries around the

world are signing new peace accords, new pledges with a bright outlook on future relations. A new era, they say, a new era of cooperation and global change.

I want to raise my hand and ask the pastor about it but of course there is no Q & A portion to this sermon. We take what we are given.

He drones on with dire warnings of doom and destruction and we nod and we amen.

Suddenly another scripture flashes to my mind, a verse from Psalms. ”The meek shall inherit the Earth. ” And as I watch the pastor talk himself into a red-faced fury of divine vindication , I wonder....what have we inherited ?