Patented Design
He built a pair of the most beautiful figures imaginable. He
made them of his choicest material and then decided to set them aglow with a
light from within themselves. He placed the fibres through every finger, toe,
limb and body and took them into the garden room that led into the outdoor area.
Then he designed and patented a special connecting switch knowing that while
ever they were plugged in, they would be clothed with the glow he gave them and
they would light up the whole scene. In due course, other figurines could be
developed with the same attributes and connected through the same channel.
An intruder sneaked in and was intrigued by the glowing figures. He considered
the connecting switch and thought, ‘if I devise a different type of switch, I
can make the figures even more glowing and they can share my knowledge, too.
They will be connected to my special switch in such a way that they cannot be
unplugged.’
His would say he discovered a flaw in the original design and would claim
ownership of the new model. Then he would move in to occupy the area.
So when it was all ready and nobody else was there to see what happened, the
intruder spoke to the pair of figures. ‘Now,’ he told them, ‘you will
be even better than you were.’
He unplugged them and quickly plugged them into the new connection he devised.
The glow stopped. Alarmed, the figures looked at themselves and discovered they
were ordinary, naked figurines because their glowing disappeared when the vital
link to the original design was lost.
The original designer strode back into the garden room and confronted them.
‘Who told you that you were naked?’ he demanded. ‘Have you eaten from the
tree which I forbade you to eat from?’
Then ‘the Lord God made coverings from skins for the man and his wife and
clothed them.’
What a joy it is to us today to know that the original connection has been
restored, ‘the divine secret kept in silence for long ages but now
disclosed,’ (Romans 16:25). It is the Son who is ‘the image of the
invisible God.’ And one day the glow will be restored because he is
‘Christ in you, the hope of glory.’ (Colossians
1:15 and 27).
Elizabeth Price