Richard had never been a believer; his belief system veered only towards the tangible things the world offered him: a steady job, smart investments here and there and, of course, how much money his car dealership raked in every month.

But when his Lexus collided with a truck at eighty kilometres per hour, and he found himself in a ditch hanging upside down, he couldn’t ignore the possibility of a divine presence. Of God. 

Though it was not the simple fact that he survived the crash that led him to that conclusion. It was the light-filled, golden-armoured man standing not too far from his battered vehicle.

‘It's easy to be a judge,’ Judge Collins would say to students, when invited to speak at university conferences. ‘The golden rule is: you must be impassive. You must keep all emotions out of your job.’ He firmly believed this. Heck, it had been his modus operandi throughout his career.

How could he know that his beliefs would change radically, that he would be so rocked to his core by death that his golden rule would feel impossible to abide by?