Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Episode 1: IMAGE IS EVERYTHING

Faith had known Logos as long as she could remember, but to her it felt more like an eternity. Some of her friends and family members thought he was a figment of her imagination, they had never seen him, all they knew about him was what she told them and she talked about him all the time. Together they had struck down formidable enemies.

Logos was a king in the Realm of Peculiar People. Faith was beginning to feel more and more like an alien in her own world, she always felt more at home in his. In fact, she was a citizen of two worlds. His world was more real to her than the one in which she existed, someday she would move there permanently. Today she would be meeting Logos in a classroom in her own world, but as she often discovered the experiences of his realm and hers usually intertwined, and extraordinary things always seemed to happen when she and Logos were together.

When she arrived he was already there, sitting in the back of the room. In front of the class stood a well dressed, attractive, charismatic figure. There was something about him Faith didn't like, but she could barely think about that because the students in the classroom were so odd. Deeply engrossed in the expounding of their teacher were the strangest collection of...? She didn't know what they were. They were dressed like kids she would see in her own classroom but some were totally animals, wolves, vultures, dogs, cats, and other creatures; others were in various stages between human and animal; and three appeared to be completely human. "What kind of classroom is this?" she asked Logos while still looking around in disbelief. "The question should be 'Who is he'?," Logos responded, looking in the direction of the teacher. "He is Heylel Diabolos, listen to what he is saying."

"This concludes our exploration of the history of mankind, pathetic creatures that they are, now we will commence our study of the law of evolution." " 'Law of evolution', I thought it was the 'theory of evolution'," Faith mused. She turned and saw a familiar face in the classroom, a girl about her age, one of the three that appeared to be totally human. Faith noticed that she grimaced as the teacher began the lesson.

Faith met Sarah at the amusement park waiting in line to ride the roller coaster. They found out they had quite a bit in common, they both shared a friendship with Logos for one thing. Sarah told her about a class she had with a teacher she found particularly distasteful, he insisted on being called "Professor" Diabolos, Sarah had said, chuckling, even though he was only a middle school teacher. She often wanted to speak up and dispute much of what he asserted, but she was afraid. He encouraged the students to stand and offer comments but most of her classmates were enthralled with him and accepted whatever he said without question and when comments were made they were in agreement with his opinions. Sarah had a friend who once dared to dispute something he had said, and he was immediately removed from the room and suspended from school for a week. Faith had taken Sarah's hands in hers and they prayed together that God would give her wisdom to know what to do and courage to stand up for the truth.

Faith turned her attention back to Logos. He pulled out a bag he had tucked under his seat and told Faith to take it to Sarah. "I'll interupt the class," she objected. "Neither Heylel Diabolos nor the students know we are here yet," Logos assured her. The bag was big, and bulky, and looked heavy, but was very light when she lifted it to take it to her friend.

"Hi, Sarah," greeted Faith. "What are you doing here Faith?," Sarah questioned with a puzzled look on her face. "Logos and I are sitting in the back, he wanted me to bring this to you." Professor Diabolos continued the lesson seemingly without even noticing that Sarah was talking to someone, no one in the class seemed to notice. Sarah reached in the bag and pulled out a helmet, a belt, a shield, a breastplate, shoes, and the Word. Faith and Sarah looked a little bewildered, but Faith insisted that she put them on because if Logos sent them to her he meant for her to use them. Sarah dressed herself in the armor while the class continued, oblivious to what was going on, she opened the Word and began reading how God created man in His image, after His likeness, then a strange thing happened, the Word began to look like the most delicious, nourishing food she had ever seen, she had the strongest desire to eat it and so she did. Then it occured to her that she had in the past partaken from the nourishment of the Word, but then it was just like babies milk. She began to feel stronger, the more she ate the stronger she felt. She sat back down and refocused on what Professor Diabolos was saying.

He had just affirmed to the class that people had evolved from single cell amoeba to the class of animals they were today. "You may as well enjoy your animalistic natures," he suggested. At this Sarah stood up. "Sir, I respectfully disagree with you, I am not now, nor have I ever been an animal." " I was created by Almighty God, in His image." "I am a Spirit being, I have a soul, and my spirit occupies this body." Her words, like the sword of the Word of God which they were, which she had eaten and digested, cut down the deception the "professor" had perpetrated and she could see her classmates were listening and digesting what she was saying as well.

Fierce anger crossed the face of the professor as he turned to look at Sarah. He was suddenly taken aback as her armor became visible to him and the anger turned to fear. Less confident, but with a distinctly irate tone, he commented, "young lady, you are out of order, report to the Principal's office immediately, I will meet you there shortly." "But sir, I have a right to express my opinion," she asserted. The professor was on the verge of flying into full-blown rage, he advanced toward her, intending to remove her physically from the class, as he did he caught a glimpse of Logos calmly sitting in the back of the room grinning at him. The anger changed to terror and he turned to the exit and fled the room.

The students sat stunned, not knowing what to do next. Sarah turned to Logos, "Sir, would you please teach our class today?" "No, Sarah," he replied, "today that is your assignment." Sarah timidly walked to the front of the class and explained how God created the world and everything in it, He created Adam in His image, then Eve from Adam. "We are not animals," she concluded, "we are Spirit beings, who have been given dominion over the world we live in." The more she spoke the more confident she became. Sarah dismissed the class and she, Faith, and Logos left the room together. Logos smiled at Sarah and she knew he was pleased with her. "Wonderful lesson," congratulated Faith.

Sarah started to remove the armor to give it back to Logos. "Sarah, you must keep that armor always," warned Logos, "you will need it often."

A few months later Faith and Logos visited the classroom again. A middle aged man was teaching a lesson on the priceless value of human life. The students were almost entirely human now, less than a handful had any animalistic characteristics at all, only one was still entirely a vulture.

After class Sarah came over to Logos and Faith. "What happened to Professor Diabolos?," Faith asked. "He came back and tried to teach but most of the class no longer had any interest in what he had to say, so he quit, he huffed out one day saying he would teach more interesting pupils elsewhere," Sarah responded.

"Not for long, if someone in his next class has as much faith and courage as you do," Logos said, smiling at Sarah.

© 2007

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

i think encouraging students to bring weapons to school is irresponsible and borderline criminal.

PAMI said...

Thank you for pointing that out, you do have a point, in this time of school shootings, etc., it's probably better not mention the sword. Christians would know it's the spiritual armor of Ephesians 6:10-17 but not everyone would know that so I edited the story a little bit. Thank you again.

Anonymous said...

Good for people to know.