She stepped from her golden carriage, looking like the queen she was. Her voluminous hooped gown bounced out around her and jewels sparkled from every part of her-on her shining curls, around her neck, rings on her fingers, gold buckles on her shoes. The image of her cried out that she was one of the richest ladies in the land, if not the whole world.

“I won’t fit through there!” she cried, and then wept.

“That is what we told you, Marm,” her chief footman said.

“I thought you were taking me to another entrance! A grand entrance is what I wanted.”

“There is no other, Ma’am, not if you want to enter THIS kingdom-there is just this one way in, no other…”

“You’re… sure?”

They had been over it a dozen times. They had driven the carriage around and around the walls of this great kingdom city, and this was the only way in.

“Then you’re right. The carriage and horses will have to stay out here. My treasure chests… I do so want to enter…” her voice was filled with yearning.

She took off all her outer clothes and the large hooped petticoat. Dressed in her dainty but all-covering underwear, she stepped towards the small gap in the wall. She gasped to see a shining soldier step from its darkness.

“You have to leave ALL of your jewels,” he said.

She removed her tiara, her necklace, her bracelets and her gold-buckled shoes.

“When you enter the portal, you will find there are other requirements,” the soldier said, adding, “and you may still turn back if you choose…”

She stepped into the dark little chink, feeling it to be much more than a step of faith, it felt like a life and death choice. But she so did want to go into this kingdom and see the wonderful king who reigned there…

<img alt=”" src=”http://images.stanzapub.com/readers/authspot/2007/03/18/21470_0.jpg” /

Brightness struck her eyes and they watered. She blinked until she could focus. Inside the thick wall was a huge wooden cross with a pool beneath it.

“I… I…” she began, as she stared up at the bloodstained cross. Words were not needed. She stepped into that red pool and washed and felt so clean and new, it was indescribable. Weak, but enthralling, exhilarating. Climbing from the now crystal waters, she felt herself clothed in a white linen gown. Winged beings helped her, one on each side.

“You are ready to meet the King Who is the King of all Kings,” she was told.

As she stepped out on the other side of the wall, into that new kingdom, she forgot about her previous life and all of the “extras” she had once depended upon. How glad she was that she had passed through that one small narrow way. Now she was ready to meet the King…