A Far More Honest View

Nothing escapes the eye of the Holy One, of course. The whimper of child in the dark rings as clear in his ears as the trumpets of battle, and if a man were to journey to the outermost fringes of the earth, even there would his eye be upon him. There are times when I suspect that he has appointed me to bring prayers to him simply for the sake of giving me something to do with my wings and that he knows every prayerful thought that ever wells up in a human heart even before it is spoken or if it is never spoken at all. Surely he knew also that Raguel and Edna had long since written him off, and why they had too, but unless I miss my guess, he didn't for a moment hold it against them. I would go so far as to say that it may even have caused him to think the more highly of them because their unbelief grew from a far more honest view of the wretchedness of things than the belief of the devout who see only what they choose to see and turn a blind eye on the rest.

• from the novel "On the Road with the Archangel"