Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: First (as in original) (01/10/05)
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TITLE: In the Image of the Father | Previous Challenge Entry
By Beatrice Ang
01/11/05 -
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The rivulets of sweat that poured down my face were bare proofs of what I had been through for 2 whole years. Finally, it was finished!
The rush of words on the simple manuscript looked rich and beautiful as I ran my finger across the black print, smudging the ink a little. It was only then that I realized how red my fingertips were from typing endlessly on the keyboard. I blinked and felt my eyes grow heavy…all but ready to close at the sudden tiredness that invaded my body.
Still, a genuine--- though wilting--- smile began to spread at the corners of my lips. I could feel my soul gush with joy and my body tingle with delight as I once again began to read the fulfillment of all my hard work.
It felt even better than when I’d received my first kiss.
The story was as perfect as I wanted it to be. The beginning, the plot, the ending…all were put together as a written reflection of who I knew I was. In it, I poured out my heart and soul, giving it everything that was uniquely and wonderfully me.
And in a way, I had created a carbon copy of myself.
As I sat on my bed that night, Bible opened on the book of Genesis (manuscript still tight in my embrace!), I thought about God. I thought about the first--- the original--- the one who in the beginning, created a creature that was a reflection of himself.
Guess what? I wondered why.
Why would someone as holy and blameless as God give his ‘character’, his ‘essence’, his ‘image’ to a race destined to sin, abandon, and disobey him? What is man that God is mindful of him?
The manuscript that up until then I was hugging close to my chest gave me all the answers I needed.
Just as I gave my individuality to the story that I wrote, therefore seeing it as my distinctive self and loving it far more than all my other works, so God had placed His nature in the very core of man. This nature is what gives man a value like no other…for he is made in the image of the original…something not even angels have been given. And sin cannot wash away this reality…yes, it may distort it…but because the nature of the Father remains in each one of us, there is a hope for repentance and remorse.
The vision of God is fulfilled in man.
Jesus Christ executed this faultlessly when he displayed the very nature of the Father for the entire world to see. He is the second Adam…the perfection of man! Christ Jesus showed the world what the Father expects of us when, despite being 100% human, Jesus faced each temptation given him with absolute resolve…and he remains blameless for all eternity! Remember that Jesus too was a man!
The original…the first of them all…made beings in his likeness to love perpetually. And we, the copies of God’s everlasting characters---loving and just---must strive to live up to what God has created us to be…men made perfect in his image.
And just how easy is THAT going to be?
Well, unless you try, you’ll never really know.
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