“Man is a Parable”

                                                    

We‘ve been instructed that man and woman were created in the likeness of God. To understand this more fully, we can say we are fables, or stories with more than the most obvious meaning or plot. I'd like to think we are more than beings with merely a spiritual component that mimics our heavenly Father’s. God has fathomless depth of being, imagination, intelligence and will.  Our depths are more easy to plumb.

For example, here's the story of one man:  Paul is born, grows through childhood and becomes an adult. He is handsome, strong and healthy. However, Paul graduates college and becomes a life insurance salesman, then climbs the corporate ladder to attain CEO status. His company sells policies with inflated prices that make the company stocks climb. The policies have lots of "small print" that many holders don't understand and therefore end up reaping negligible benefit from them at their most vulnerable times - after the death of a spouse, child, or parent. Moreover, Paul's aim is to use his prosperity to fund a program that will eradicate poverty from the world, but not for the good of the world; he only hopes to gain a lasting legacy.

Paul, then, has four levels:
   -his outward, physical beauty = the soul we are given to begin life on earth
   -the business sense he acquires = the spirit which resides with our soul
   -the program he dreams of funding = the holiness we attempt (or don’t attempt) to attain with our lives
   -his proposed legacy = the ineffable spirit that we receive when we transcend this life for the next.    

Paul is a fine specimen of a man and many will only go this far in viewing his life. Paul’s business dealings may be how some know his character, though he may go on to learn from his mistakes. Paul may find, later in life, that the best way to attain riches is not to victimize the powerless, but to work diligently for honest profits instead. Others may ultimately see his story in that context. Paul may also learn that he is not truly in control of the world, no matter how rich and powerful he becomes, and that his dreamed-of legacy is a vain one. Ultimately, Paul will attain spiritual enlightenment and the world and heaven will both gain; or he will not and the world and heaven will both lose.

Each one of us has the same type of story as Paul’s to play out. We all have these same levels to work with and to work on. It is no wonder Jesus taught in parables; He wanted us to realize that what we see is not all there is. There is more to a person than meets the eye. There is life beyond the soul, beyond the mundane, beyond this world. We need to live life on all levels. We need to accept and cultivate the gifts we are born with. God works with what we have and what we offer to, miraculously, turn it into enough and more. Like the miracle of the 5 loaves and 2 fishes, we are turned from a deficit to a surplus when we use what we have to do His will.