Volume XX, Issue X: Special Book Section
Josiah
By Bob Kirchman
Copyright © 2020, The Kirchman Studio, all rights reserved
Epilogue: The Bridge of God
For decades it had simply been known as ‘The Great Mystery’ by the colonists. Indeed it was a wonder to them that the opening existed at all. Upon landing, the colonists had discovered the opening that gave entry into the little valley. The fine soil and natural protection had led them to place a substantial part of their greenhouse agriculture in that valley. That was why the colonists survived. Josiah the colonist and Josiah Zimmerman walked through the arch one afternoon in their spacesuits. Josiah the colonist told the story as they stared up at the 90’ wide archway that rose 215’ above them. Young Zimmerman found the whole scene strangely familiar.
Really, this looks just like a place I remember from my boyhood,” young Josiah mused. “It is the spitting image of the Natural Bridge in Rockbridge County. My grandfather would take me there. We would stand under the arch and look up at it. He would whisper “MOHOMONY.” That is what the Monacan Nation called it and it was a sacred place to their people. The name was alternately translated ‘Great Mystery’ or ‘The Bridge of God.’
The Monacans were a Souix people who lived in the Valley of Virginia. Once a band of Monacans were being pursued by a much larger army of Powhatans and in their distress they prayed. They had been pressed to the edge of a deep chasm, the valley of Cedar Creek. Escape was impossible. But looking up they saw the natural bridge that spanned the chasm. They hurried their women and children across it. Now the warriors turned and faced their enemy on the narrow bridge. The larger Powhatan force was reduced by the width of the bridge and that day the Monacans prevailed.” Grandfather never tired of telling that tale.
When the unmanned lander had sent its rover through the arch, no one thought to pan the camera up. It remained a secret until the relief shuttle crew walked through it.
Josiah Zimmerman thought of the Virginia colonists and how they had discovered a bend on the James River that looked just like the bend in the Thames River at a place called Richmond. Thus the capital of the new place took its name from its similarity to a place familiar. Here in a faraway and forbidding place was a scene familiar as well – and even more amazing, it too played in a story of Divine deliverance. In the times to come, it too would become known as ‘MOHOMONY.’
Then Joshua called the twelve men, whom he had prepared of the children of Israel, out of every tribe a man: And Joshua said unto them, Pass over before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of Jordan, and take you up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel: That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones? Then ye shall answer them, That the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever. And the children of Israel did so as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones out of the midst of Jordan, as the Lord spake unto Joshua, according to the number of the tribes of the children of Israel, and carried them over with them unto the place where they lodged, and laid them down there. And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests which bare the ark of the covenant stood: and they are there unto this day.” – Joshua 4:4-9
THE END
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Copyright © 2020, The Kirchman Studio, all rights reserved
