James believed in many things- he had to, he was a human. One of the things he believed in was God. It seemed logical and correct to him that God existed, but he could never quite put his finger on the reason until he happened across a good one in Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, a book that James sometimes read. In an early chapter, a bishop goes to talk to a dying man, as is his duty. The man, however, had been involved in the French Reign of Terror. Of course, the bishop is horrified with the man's history, but he also believes all men should have an opportunity to benefit from God's grace. As he is talking to the man, he tells him that his crime was not all the people he and his comrades murdered. No, the crime was that they had rejected God. Even before the man explained himself James knew that actually what had been rejected was the oppressive church, for verily a church does not define it's God, and to reject such an institution is not to reject God. But what the man told the bishop was that the universe is infinite, and therefore contained all things, and therefore contained a sense of me. This was the reason James believed in God.

James also believed in Jesus Christ, for such a being had to exist. After going to church for several years, James eventually gleaned that God was perfect, and therefore could only accept a perfect sacrifice for transgressions against Him. This made sense. All the imperfection in the world, in the universe, could never in any combination equal perfection. Mundanely, it's like getting a 4.0 in college- once you get a B, your average will never really be 4.0, even if you get nothing but A's for evermore- it will only approach 4.0, and be forever bogged down in repeating 9's. So, God gave unto the earth a perfection that was physical, that it might be sacrificed to atone for the imperfect sins. And, since such a sacrifice was perfect, it would forever atone for every sin, ever. To James, this made utter sense. In chess, a game at which James was sometimes good, there are moves which are considered sacrificial, but James knew better. It's called a sacrifice if one gives up a piece for a better position. But what's lost is less then what's gained, and therefore it really isn't a sacrifice at all. But forgiveness is a sacrifice, because when one forgives one asks for no compensation for a transgression. Humans, imperfect, sinned against God, perfect, and He forgave them. He made a sacrifice in doing as such, and in order to show humans that this was so he physically reenacted the sacrifice by putting his avatar on the earth, for being completely physical beings humans could understand such a thing only in this way.

So James Destiny decide he wanted to shake the hand of God. One day, he awoke and set out walking. He left his house, walked down the street, and eventually reached the edge of town. He continued on the road, letting cars pass him without any thought what so ever. He was not crazy; he had not snapped. Pressure was not too great; he didn't need to get away from it all. He was utterly calm, utterly sane, utterly fine.

Dusk happened and when James discovered he could see the road no longer, he left it, and walked across a field, noting as he went the way the wind blew the grass back into place after he stepped on it. When he entered a grove of trees that stretched further then he could ken he made his way through. When he could see no edge anywhere from where he stood, he sat down. He closed his eyes and went to sleep.

The next day James Destiny was awakened by the silence of the trees. He gathered branches and leaves, constructing a crude ceiling of sorts, for James knew he was going to be where he was for a long time. At the end of this second day he resolved to stop eating. As still as possible he lay beneath the make-shift shelter, and breathed deeply and slowly. When next he woke he was hungry, but tried not to think about it, and tried not to move. The fourth day he also knew hunger, but pushed it away again, and on the fifth day he was hungry no more. He monitored his breathing and became able to inhale for a long time, and to exhale as slowly. A week passed and he did not move, until on the twelfth day he realized he was no longer falling asleep. His thoughts became clearer and cleaner, more logical and free of mundane dirt. The days in this way were spent in peaceful contemplation of his breathing and his heartbeat, and at night he considered the discipline of his actions.

by the thirtieth day James Destiny knew he would never be going back. He was going to shake the hand of God. His ceiling had blown away, and the rain had washed his forehead of all the grit and soil that had fallen from his temporary shelter. James was not cold, nor hot. He didn't itch. His muscles did not ache, his eyes did not hurt, his insides did not churn. His body was a soft blanket of weight. By the thirty-ninth day James' vision became as sharp and as clear as his thoughts, and he could see the stars even in the daytime. On the fortieth day he knew his breathing had become as shallow and as singular as the sun's passage; on the forty-first day his heart beat only one time. James Destiny died on the forty-second day.

In a room made of white walls James sat in a comfortable chair, feeling none of the ills of existence, but possessing all his mental faculties. He waved his hand in front of his face, and pulled on his nose to see if he was real. Across the room, which was not too large, he noticed a man, who smiled and said "Yes, James, you are still real. You will always be real."

The man was dressed in clothes made of soft light. His hair was long and seemed also to made of strands of light. His eyes did not shine, but light spilled cool and gentle from them. He had James' face. James was curious. "Who are you? Where am I?"

The man answered. "I am you, of course. I am the God you created."

James was confused. "But I did not create you. You are the infinite. You were in existence before me; you will still exist after me."

God smiled- his teeth were made of light. "Yes I am infinite, but you created me. I am as you saw fit to know me. You, who are finite, put limitations on me when you tried to understand me. You, who are finite, made me what I am when you were first effected by me- all things which are effected by some thing also effect that thing."

James nodded his head. "I wanted to shake your hand."

God said, "And you will. Infinity and the finite will be as one."

James shook his head. "I don't want the impossible. I don't want something that doesn't exist."

God looked James in the face, and seemed to study his brow. "A thing exists from the moment someone thinks about it. That is why humans exist- even though they are impossible. Newton said that matter and energy cannot be created or destroyed. And he was right- that is the fundamental definition of the universe. But Life can be created, and Life can be destroyed. This is impossible, but still it is so. Therefore, since nothing can be created, Life is defined as that which can be created. Furthermore, anything which can be destroyed is defined as Life. It is the only thing which has a beginning and an end. Immortality exist only for that which is infinite- that which has no beginning, and has no end. That which is Everything."

James stood, and held out his hand. "I didn't want to be immortal, I just wanted to shake the hand of God."

God also stood, and said. "But you will be immortal," as he grasped James' hand, and at that instant James Destiny became every single atom in the universe.