The Story of Salvation

In 2009, I was given an assignment to write the story of salvation from my perspective.  While most of my fellow student-teachers personalized the Passion Week account or spoke metaphorically about how Good Friday and Easter effect their lives, I took a broader approach.  I started my story of salvation when The Story of Salvation starts: Eden.  I strove to compose an account that not only tells my story, but the story of all humankind.

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It started with sin; perfectly harmless and quite pleasing.  Listening to the lies that had been told, the child of God had eaten from a tree that had been forbidden.  It was not forbidden so as to punish the child, but rather to protect.  And yet, the child thought that the Father was being unfair.  Now, the Father, being fair, had to punish the child.  And the punishment: eternal separation from the Father. 

The child, horrified, tried to fix the problem with the means available.  Sacrifices, piety, fancy prayers, festivals, religious services, self-mutilation, fasting, solitude; no mater what the child did, the Father was not satisfied.  Then the day came for the Father to punish the child.  The Father led the child to a hill with a Tree.  The child knew that the Tree was where those who sinned were punished.

When the child and the Father reached the top of the hill, both were brought to tears when they found the child’s Brother already there, hanging in the place of the child.  He had accepted His sibling’s punishment, even though He had not sinned.  Remorseful, the child knelt at the base of the Tree, vowing to follow in his Brother’s footsteps.  Both the Father and child left the hill, their hearts broken.  When they reached the bottom, the child looked up at the Father and asked why his Brother sacrificed Himself.

“Because I love you.”  The child turned to see his Brother standing there, alive yet scarred.  Embracing Him, the child begged for forgiveness, apologizing for the sin he committed.  His Brother simply smiled and said: “All is forgiven, left at the foot of the Tree.  Now, let Me teach you of a new Life.”

That day the child’s name was changed to Christian, the bearer of Christ.  The rest of the child’s life was spent taking Christ, his Brother, to everyone he met, so that everyone might know of the wondrous act of love that occurred that day on the hill with the Tree.

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Happy Easter!  Χριστός ἀνέστη!