Whatever His plans are for me, it goes even beyond the most inflated definitions and borders this world has for superiority.
Again this has arisen from a series of casual musings, late-night to be exact. Thursday was the last day of my attachment at the Biopolis. During our lunch break my friends and I ventured outside the food court after our lunch to explore the jewelery bazaar lined up neatly along the roads. My narcissistic nature controls the feminine side of me, and thus explains a few of my radical reservations for metrosexuality. Of course, this also shows why I have an eye for shiny things. We probed around for about 20 minutes, and I bought this ring which just happened to catch my attention. I didn't know to what about it I was attracted, but time was running out and I promised the she in me that I had to spend, so I gave him the cash.
Fast forward. Herein lies the narration of my act of stupidity. Back at Proteos building where and as the other group finished their presentation, I lazily slapped my right hand on the tables in a continuous motion -- an apathetic effort to applaud with one hand. Then I realized was wearing my ring. Then I realized what an idiot I was. Then I realized I'd scratched my barely 1 hour old object of vanity. Oh yeah, and I went "SHIT!" really loud too. Here's what it looks like now.
See that blot there right under the crystal? That's it. And then the next day, which was yesterday, Good Friday, it came. And it just HAD to be on yesterday. The ring was no coincidence. Now just take a look a that picture again. This is where it gets complicated.
As you can see, the ring is composed of two separate layers, the top possessing a polished, mirror like shine, and the bottom having a more metallic, chromed surface, duller and much less gleaming. The upper layer represents God and His divine being. His existence is glorious, bright, clear, palpable, arresting, and you cannot hide from it, because once you look into it, all that is visible is your wretched nature reflected off the mirror of such a sacred entity. There is a stark contrast between the two layers. You cannot hope to look Him in the eyes because all you get is your aberrant self thrown back to you repeatedly in the face of dazzling light.
The lower layer is composed of metal whose surface has been deliberately blurred, as if it wanted hide something, or hide from something. This is analogous to our falling short of the glory of God. We cannot shine as conspicuously and as radiantly as we once did when He first made us. And we’re constantly reminded of this fact because we bear an insignia of sin, just like the scar I gave my ring right below the crystal. The blemish was permanent; it was unsightly. We couldn’t erase it even if we wanted; it was embedded into our nature. Sin was embedded into our nature.
The two are separated just as we were divorced.
But along strode the diamond. Ok it’s not really a diamond it’s just some bogus piece of crystal. Let’s just take it as a real diamond for the sake of the analogy. The reason diamonds and crystals can boast of such a scintillating sparkle is because of a scientific phenomenon called total internal reflection. Total internal reflection is an optical phenomenon that occurs when light strikes a medium boundary at a steep angle. If the refractive index is lower on the other side of the boundary no light can pass through, so effectively all of the light is reflected.
Ok this is physics. Optics to be exact. Let me first assume you know what refraction is. Basically it happens like this. A light ray enters the diamond, is refracted by the surface by which it enters, hits the other surface by which it’s supposed to exit, but does so at or beyond an angle known as the critical angle (which is determined by the refractive index of the material), and so is consequently refracted, or in this case, reflected back into the diamond. This continues until the light ray hits an angle where it can finally escape from the diamond. Sometimes it never does until a few years later. Light that enters the diamond can get trapped in there for a very long time. This is what makes a diamond look so shiny when viewed from the outside, like a transparent particle with brightness frolicking within.
So why did I choose light to explain this? Is it because Jesus is the one to light our path? Is it because the Bible says we are the light of the world? No. It’s more physics again. Light has one very unique property that scientists have proved but are still struggling to explain. Light exists both as a particle and as a wave at the same time, just like Jesus, who parallels this attribute by descending on earth one hundred percent God and one hundred percent man. No theologian can tell you how it’s possible. And like the light in the diamond, flesh and spirit, He allowed himself to be trapped within the tortures of this world; He enforced humanistic limitations upon Himself, He embraced the limits of tolerable pain. But He also established victory over death; the light ray found an egress.
And in that God bestowed upon undeserving mankind the glorious hope of eternal salvation and reconciliation, just as the diamond bridges the gap between the two layers of conflicting metal, just like the magnificence and splendour of heavenly opulence the diamond exudes in its sparkle with which the beholder adores like a caressing to his heart. This is faith, hope and love.
Amazing?
God is.
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