Thursday, June 16, 2011

The Haunting

"I am haunted by humans."

If you've read The Book Thief you are familiar with this quote made by Death. Within the context of the literature, it is quite moving and a uniquely exhilarating and chilling conclusion. Outside of the context of the novel, there is also much to be said.

Human beings are of supreme creation, no doubt about that. Imagine what other species, if indeed granted the intellectual ability, must think of humans. Destructive, yet creatively industrious. Each unique, yet strangely related by genetics and personal characteristics.

Christians hold to the doctrine of being created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). Though of no divinity, humans professing to Christ possess the divine Spirit. This too is a strangely haunting and yet beautiful aspect of personhood.

With the ability to do good, and the same ability to do evil, we too possess the capability of discovering beauty despite destruction and evil, holding to the notion that "something good must come even from bad."

I, too, am haunted by humans. I believe it to be in the same regard that I fear the Lord, with reverence, lack of omniscience, and perhaps most importantly, a desire to know more.

This fear, this haunting, while beautiful and yet sorely misunderstood, captivates my desire for knowledge. To discover not only why humans behave as they do, but to know the supreme Creator who being of perfect nature embraces love, and all that is good, despite a fallen state of being. How be it so that with one hand we praise and with the other we sin but to acknowledge the haunting nature of man, who knows both good and evil.

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