Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi
I wrote this back in 2000, trying to find a simple way to explain the Gospel. I posted it on Facebook yesterday, and it got such an overwhelming response (read: not a single comment) that I thought, why not post it here, too? Especially since I'm still running for all I'm worth just to try and keep up with everything I need to do in the next 3 or 4 weeks and don't have any REAL blog material ready...so, if you're into this sort of thing...enjoy!
Oh, the jump from Word seems to have been a bit wonky. The spacing is even over there; I 'm just gonna apologize for it being uneven here. Not sure why. At least it's only for a bit in the beginning.
Once upon a time, there was a
King. He was a very good King. Everything in His Kingdom was full of light
and joy and happiness, and all the subjects of the King loved their King very
much. This was a miraculous kingdom in which
no one died, so the King never would be replaced by a less good and wise
King…He would be King forever. His
nature was Eternal, so there was no decay, no abuse, no corruption of
government. As it had always been, so it
would always be.
Time
did not exist in the Kingdom. From
eternity, life in the Kingdom was blissful and happy. But, eventually there was one being in the
Kingdom who began to be unhappy. Why and
how it happened is a mystery, but one of the King’s highest officials, who had
authority over much of the Kingdom, became unsatisfied with any authority less
than the King’s own. Thoughts that had
never been thought by anyone else ever before were being entertained by this
Unhappy One. He realized that the King
would be King forever… which would mean that no one else would ever be
King. Especially, it meant that he would never be King. Finally, this Unhappy One stood up and said,
“I will be King!”…and there was war.
Because the Unhappy One was very
persuasive, he was able to convince others to join his cause. Fully one-third of the population of the
Kingdom followed the Unhappy One into battle, but they did not prevail. The captains of the King took the Unhappy One
and all his followers and exiled them to a remote Island
of the Kingdom. Then guards were posted
so that none of the dark, bitter beings on the Island
should ever have the opportunity to corrupt another one of the King’s
subjects. Only the Unhappy One would be
allowed off the Island, and then only under
guard to have an audience with the King, at the King’s discretion.
The Unhappy One, furious at his exile,
decided if he couldn’t be King of the Kingdom, he would be King of the Island. His first
action was to eliminate any who might oppose him, so he chained in prison caves
deep within the Island all those among his
followers who had become so twisted and evil that even he felt threatened by
them. Then, to defy the King, he used
his ability and his authority over the horde that followed him to systematically
destroy the Island. Anything of beauty he pulled down. Anything that was fruitful he uprooted. Finally, there was nothing left on the Island but bare rock and dirty, steaming water that was a
stench to the rest of the Kingdom. Then,
from the stronghold he had built, he shook his fist in the direction of the
King’s Palace and sat on a stone he had carved into a semblance of a
throne. “I am King!” he declared.
The King watched this entire
process sadly. He grieved for the
Unhappy One, whom he had loved and who had done the unthinkable. He grieved for those the Unhappy One had
deceived and led to exile. He grieved
for his Island, which had been a lovely
place. He knew that, ultimately, the
Unhappy One would have to be exiled to a place beyond the Kingdom, so as to destroy
nothing else in the Kingdom. So, He made
a place outside of the Kingdom – a terrible place of No Boundaries, so that
none could escape; with fire to isolate each being and prevent any kind of
perverse community developing. The
beings who were sent there would be totally cut off from absolutely anything
else…and be unable to do any further harm to the Kingdom. The King mourned as He made it, but His love
for all His creation required that He deal drastically with the cancer that had
infected it. He did the only thing He
could do.
Then, He turned His attention to the
Island.
He considered what He could do.
He knew that He could order the whole population of the Island off the
Island to the Terrible Place He’d made, but that would not redeem the damage to
the Island nor demonstrate His true
nature. He ultimately reached a decision
beyond the capability of even His most trusted officials to understand. They could comprehend His decision to go
there Himself to restore His Kingdom and His authority. What they couldn’t understand was the means
by which He would do that. All He would
say was, “I will use the weak to confound the strong.” Then, He began the task of re-making the Island so that it was suitable for the plan that He’d
made.
First, He created Time, to define
the limits of His actions there, so there would be a Beginning and an End. Then, He cleaned the water and the land. He put growing things back on the Island, first plants, then fish and birds and
animals. Finally, He did something that
amazed all the Eternal Ones who were watching – He made a new creature. Into this creature He breathed a bit of His
own Life. Then, He put the new creature
in a garden in the middle of the Island. He also made the creature a mate, so that
they could reproduce and spread out over the Island. He then gave them authority over the Island and everything on it. Finally, He did a very dangerous thing – He
gave them a choice between obeying Him or not obeying Him by forbidding them to
do one specific thing. The Eternal Ones
around Him were aghast. The Unhappy One
was on the Island! He had great persuasive power! What if the New Ones listened to him? But, the King merely smiled and said, “Love
that has no alternative is not love…and the Kingdom must be built on love.”
All the time the King was on the Island, the Unhappy One hid in fear. But, when the King rested from His work, the
Unhappy One realized he was not going to be banished from the Island. He gleefully devised a plan to destroy this
new work that the King had done…beginning with the New Ones the King had
made. Carefully avoiding the times the
King came to visit them, the Unhappy One began to talk to the New Ones, trying
to convince them to do the one thing the King had forbidden them to do. He told them the King had forbidden this
thing because it would make them better, wiser, even king-like. His words
made them wonder if the King gave them what was best, or if He were keeping
them from what was best. Ultimately,
they decided they would rather make their own decisions than follow the King,
and they did the thing that was forbidden.
The Unhappy One and all his minions
broke out into raucous celebration. The
Eternal Ones in the King’s Palace watched in horror as the King’s Life in the
New Ones died. “I am King!” the Unhappy
One once more proclaimed over the Island. “The New Ones have relinquished their
authority! I am King!”
“What will you do?” the Chief of the
King’s officials asked. But, the King
merely smiled sadly. “What I have planned,”
He replied. “The Kingdom will be
restored by love...but first, I must teach them that they cannot be the kings
they believe themselves to be.”
So, the King made one final visit to
the New Ones before they completely lost their ability to see Him and
understand Him clearly. He explained to
them what the consequences of their action would be – not judgment, but how
their lives would work, since the King’s Life in them was now dead. He told them they would fight and sweat and
hurt…but in the end, their offspring would defeat the Unhappy One. But their comprehension was fading fast and
they didn’t understand much of it. They
knew that the joy and the freedom they had before they did the forbidden thing
were gone. They realized that, without
the King’s Life in them, they were on their own. They were afraid, and even the visit of the
King did not completely dispel the fear.
They did their best to teach their children what they had learned of the
King. Some of their children chose to
honor the King, but others listened to the Unhappy One, whom they could now
hear but not see, and chose to honor themselves…or the works of their hands…as
king. Years and generations passed. There was always antagonism—sometimes
outright war–between those who honored the King and those who did not. At times, it seemed those who rejected the
King would overcome those who honored Him.
At such times, the arrogance of the Unhappy One was nearly unbearable to
the Eternal Ones watching, yet the King held His hand from intervening once and
for all.
The King gave the New Ones a Code to
follow, and specific sacrifices to make to keep them in communication with
Him. Since they had no Life in them,
Life had to be sacrificed on their behalf.
The King knew this, and He planned a Great Sacrifice to restore Life to
the New Ones, but that could not be made until at least a few of them could
understand the need for it. As years
passed, the New Ones proved themselves unable to abide by the Code. They worked at it, but always slipped back
into doing what made sense to them, rather than what the King required. Finally, they began to worship the Code
itself, even though they could not keep it.
They valued it above the King, because it was a concrete thing that they
could understand, and not an Eternal Unchanging King that they could not
understand. When this happened, the King
stood up in His Palace and quietly stated, “It is Time.”
Then, the King did something
unfathomable, which only the King could do.
While He remained as King in the Palace, He also entered time as a Child
of the New Ones…a baby who was born and grew to adulthood among the New Ones
themselves. Most of the New Ones did not
even realize who He was, but the Unhappy One and his minions recognized Him at
once. Suddenly, they were presented with
an opportunity to destroy the King Himself…and then, who would be King? Plot after plot to destroy Him, right from
the moment He was born on the Island, failed
while the King grew and went among the New Ones, explaining to them what the
relationship they were to have with the King was to be. He taught them how to see the restoration of
the Kingdom to the Island. He told them that the Code was based on two
great principles – to
love the King and to love each other – and taught that if they did those two
things, the rest would follow.
A few of them understood a little and
acknowledged Him as King, while others were disturbed and frightened by these
new teachings. The Unhappy One and his
followers went to work on those who were disturbed and convinced them that this
upstart Teacher was dangerous, that He was trying to destroy the Code the King
had given them. Finally, the Unhappy
One’s influence led the frightened New Ones to rise up in anger and kill the
King, scattering the few who had trusted Him and sending the Unhappy One and
all his realm into a paroxysm of wicked glee.
“I am King!” the Unhappy One proclaimed to the hordes in his stronghold,
and as the celebration among them reached its zenith he began to make plans to
launch an attack against the Mainland and the King’s Palace.
But the Unhappy One had not
considered the power of the King. While
he was laying his plan of attack, the Life of the King returned, and He Who Was
Slain became alive again. The Great
Sacrifice had been made. The King
Himself had made it possible for the New Ones to once more have the King’s Life
in them. Now, the Eternal Ones in the
Kingdom understood and rejoiced to see the wisdom and glory of the King. But in the dominion of the Unhappy One, the
stone that he’d called his throne split down the middle with a crack of doom,
and cries of glee and triumph became wails of fear and grief as the news swept
through the stronghold: The King lives!
With the taste of terror in his
mouth, the Unhappy One sped off to see for himself if the unbelievable news was
true. To his everlasting horror, he
arrived in time to see the Living King breathing Life back into those who had
recognized Him and honored Him as King.
He watched all his plans crumble to dust as that Life filled the King’s
followers. Then, the King returned to
the Mainland, leaving the Reborn New Ones a promise that they didn’t
understand…and what the Unhappy One perceived as an opportunity. Yes, the Kingdom had been restored…but it was
very small as yet and could perhaps be defeated again. He returned to his stronghold to plan a
different attack.
But the King did not plan to leave
the Reborn defenseless. The promise that
He’d given them was a promise to stay with them forever, and when He’d returned
to Himself in the Palace, He did a final Unexplainable Thing. He looked at His followers on the Island, the
tiny group of Reborn who were still trying to comprehend the incredible
resurrection of the King, and sent His Spirit, His very Essence, back to the Island and into each of the Reborn. Now, they did not only have the King’s Life
in them, but the Presence of the King Himself – with the King’s power and
authority. When the Unhappy One threw
his attacks against the small group of Reborn who made up the Kingdom, he was
astonished to see that the Kingdom did not collapse. Instead, it grew stronger. The Reborn, who had been so recently cowering
in fear, were now boldly proclaiming the Kingdom, even at the risk of pain and
death. Many New Ones who had rejected
the King when He walked among them saw the transformation that had taken place
in the Reborn and repented of their earlier action, acknowledging the King in
their own lives – and the Spirit of the King came into them with Life. The Kingdom grew…and grew…and grew….
Many years have passed. The Unhappy One learned very quickly that
what had worked before would not work now, since the Presence of the King in
the Reborn was an eternal presence and would not die. Even when the Reborn followed their own
desires instead of the King’s, that Presence in them grieved but did not die.
Frustrated, The Unhappy One formed strategy
after strategy to defeat the Kingdom.
First, he tried to kill all those who followed the King, but he could
not. He nearly succeeded in assimilating
them back into the culture of those who worshiped the Code, but a remnant
always refused, despite intense persecution, and eventually the voice of the
remnant drew more New Ones back to the Kingdom.
He tried creating counterfeit Teachers of the Kingdom, who deceived
many, but there were always those who clung to and proclaimed the Truth. He tried distracting the Reborn with physical
pleasures and material goods, but some always esteemed the Kingdom more and
served as examples to those who needed help to maintain Kingdom
priorities. He tried discrediting the
Reborn with their own weaknesses and failures, but over and over the Reborn
would repent and turn to the King, who forgave them and restored them. The Unhappy One was especially aggravated
when he saw that those who had succumbed to weakness, then truly repented,
often became the most humble and the strongest of the Reborn. He tried promoting false kingdoms and kings
in an effort to confuse the New Ones, often using truths from the true Kingdom
itself as part of the teachings of the false ones.
It is true that many of the New Ones were
deceived and rejected the Kingdom. Many
even hated the Kingdom and the Reborn and were willing to do unwittingly the
work of the Unhappy One. But the Kingdom
still grew, sometimes very slowly, sometimes with almost miraculous speed, as
New Ones daily yielded their allegiance to the King, received His Life and
Spirit and followed the influence of that Life and Spirit in their daily
living.
The
Reborn still cherish the promise that, when the King has given all His
creatures the complete opportunity to respond to His love for them, He will
return to the Island. Once more, the King and all His servants will
grieve as all those who refuse to be part of the Kingdom will finally be
allowed to go to the only place where the Kingdom is not -- the Terrible Place of
No Boundaries. But, when Deceiver and
Deceived are banished by their own choice from the Kingdom forever, the peace
and joy of the Kingdom will truly be restored to all the King’s realm.
It
was the choice of the Unhappy One to divide the Kingdom; the Kingdom will be
restored upon the choice of the New Ones to love the King in the face of the
Unhappy One’s lies.
The
King understood that from the Beginning.
