1 May 2007

Today I had a nice day. A long deserved and awaited break. I needed it.

Spent the morning studying from my Sign Language dictionary for the test next thurs, and I’m only up til letter “C”. *sigh* I wonder how I’m gonna complete studying the vocab and go thru the sentences and stories from BS1 to AS2 by next thurs. I think I may need to take a day off to study again.

Spent the afternoon reading at Parkway. Am currently reading “Cries of the Heart – Bringing God near when He feels so far” by Ravi Zacharias. Finished chapter 6: The Cry of a Lonely Heart and Chapter 1: The Cry to Know God.

Took down quite a bit of notes in my journal, but the one thing I really wanted to share is an extract, an illustration from Chapter 1 (Pg 19) of the book.

“ When we lived in India, a rather novel incident took place with one of our household staff. He hailed from a village, and the city was quite new to him. One day, as a special treat, my mother gave him some money to go and see a movie. This was a first for him. When he returned a couple of hours later, by looking at his face you would have thought he had walked on the surface of the moon. He was ecstatic.

What happened? We asked.

He told us that when he arrived in the theater, the movie had already begun. He walked into the dark hall and stood by the door because he could not see his way around. As it happened he was facing the back of the room from where the movie was being projected, and he saw beams of light coming through an opening in the wall. He enjoyed that sight for a moment, thinking that this was what a movie was. By chance he turned around and was astounded to see a picture on the screen in splendid color, and in Hindi he let out the equivalent of an Archimedean shout – “Eureka!”

He scrambled over people and stumbled to a seat to sit entranced for the rest of the movie. We had seldom laughed as hard, along with him I might add, thinking at once of his unspoiled demeanor and of his childlike delight.

Somehow I feel God has done the same with us as He has unfolded to us who He is. Every way in which He spoke to mankind was like that beam bearing particles of the picture only as a glittering ray – numberless specks glistening and moving in the same direction – until in one composite, splendor-filled picture, the light fell upon the face of His Son and “we beheld his glory…,” said the disciples, “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14)…

You see, everything a person creates can at best only bear similarity to that person. Like a sculptor who carves his own image or an artist who paints a self-portrait, a person can only bear a similarity to his or her creations. But he who is begotten bears the essence of the one from whom He has been begotten. All of God’s creation may show His splendour or beauty up to a point. The Word carried the grand doctrines of His sovereignty, His holiness, His omniscience, and His immutability. But in His crowning expression, we see the “only begotten of the Father.” He bears the essence of His Father. When they asked of Him, “Show us the Father,” He said, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14 :8-9)”