Excerpt from IN THE LIKENESS

CHAPTER ONE

    BEGINNING

I began with my eyes open.

At that one selected and particular point in time, I simply was, and in that initial moment my very first glimpse of the creation around me was of the sky, the deepest and the bluest sky.

After so many years of conversations about my singular beginning, I know that this is one of the first answers sought about my own unique creation. Since man now arrives rather leisurely to an awareness of self and surroundings, it is certainly a very proper question to ask. And it is my most fervent intention to provide as many of the answers to your questions about me as possible, so that you may in turn attempt to answer the important questions you have about yourself. In the course of this labor perhaps we might both accomplish the desires of our hearts so that I may at last find some rest and you may receive some hope for your personal renewal.

Though I cannot tell you that I specifically recall all of the details of my sudden initiation to life, I have always assumed that I must have been lying on my back when self-awareness initially came upon me. I suppose I could certainly have been standing or sitting with my head pointed up to that blue sky above me, but these options seem unlikely enough in a reasonable recounting of it in this now permanently shadowed view of the heavens that we presently must suffer. What I do remember with a near perfect recollection is the vision of that gorgeous blue sky which filled my eyes in my first moments of living and I am able to clearly recall how in my very first conscious thought I pondered in awe that such a thing as a blue sky could actually exist. This might prove difficult for you to grasp, as will so many other portions of my life’s testimony, but you must attempt to consider what I am telling you. Even though I hardly understood that I was alive or even what it might mean to live, still my initial thought was how remarkable a sight was directly above me and what a perfect covering of protection and infinite beauty it provided.

I realize that it will be impossible to explain this to your fullest satisfaction, but even during my first few hours upon this earth, I had the capacity to realize that the creation of which I was the newest part was perfect in every way and that nothing would ever be found lacking in such a magnificent work of such a magnificent author. More than anything else I remember, or might care to remember, that recognition of perfection was the essence of my beginning. My very first hours of life held the overwhelming emotion of gazing upon a flawless design and embracing the joyful desire that all of my energy should be focused only on discovery and exploration of the perfection that was surrounding me and could be observed wherever my gaze might fall. There existed for me only the quite obvious realization that absolutely nothing could hold more of my interest than the attempt to comprehend the grandeur and beauty which lay before me. It is a challenge for any man born of man to subsequently imagine, but my mind held little interest for my own nature or my personal thoughts as compared to my enthusiasm for exploring the creation around me and learning all that I could of its meaning and purpose.

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