The Fifth Mountain: Will God Disappear From Words?

"Will God disappear from words?" the woman asked.

"He will continue in them" Elijah replied. "But each person will be responsible before Him for whatever he writes."

She took fromt he sleeve of her garment a clay tablet with something written on it.

"What does this mean?" Elijah asked.
"It's the word love."

Elijah took the tablet in his hands, not daring to ask why she had given it to him. On that piece of clay, a few scratches summed up why the stars continued in the heavens and why men walked the earth.

He tried to return it to her, but she refused.

"I wrote it for you. I know your responsibility, I know that one day you will have to leave, and that you will become enemy of my country because you wish to do away with Jezebel. On that day, it may come to pass that I shall be at your side, supporting you in your task. Or it may come to pass that I fight against you, for Jezebel's blood is the blood of my country; this word that you hold in your hands is filled with mystery. No one can know what it awakens in a woman's heart, not even prophets who speak with God."

"I know the word that you have written," said Elijah, storing the tablet in a fold of his cape. "I have struggled day and night against it, for, although I do not know what it awakens in a woman's heart, I know what it can do to a man. I have the courage to face the king of Israel, the princess of Sidon, the Council of Akbar, but that one word--love--inspires deep terror in me. Before you drew it on the tablet, your eyes had already seen it written in my heart.

They fell silent. Despite the Assyrian's death, the climate of tension in the city, the call from the Lord that could occur at any moment--none of this was as powerful as the word she had written.

Elijah held out his hand, and she took it. They remained thus until the sun hid itself behind the Fifth Mountain.

"Thank you," she said as they returned. "For a long time I had desired to spend the hours of sunset with you."

- Paulo Coelho, the Fifth Mountain
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I love this part because it's such poignant moment. The struggle of love to manifest in such a conflicted situation is the most courageous struggle of two people who wish to walk free in it. I suppose that when the real kind of love graces you with it's presence, there is no other way to go except to be propelled forward into a deep, profound and mysterious journey.