The Lamb and His Love!

“In the beginning..” It began as a narration. A chronological account of the wonder of creation. What happened when and how. The how was so simple..unlike the innumerable, incomprehensible, yet over emphasized theories of the origin of Universe, which involve fancy words like ‘singularities’ and words depicting destruction, like, ‘collision’ and ‘explosion’

“In the beginning, God created the Heaven and the Earth.”

~Genesis 1:1

How, you ask? He spoke and it appeared.

We would think it would be a story of wonder and awe, the romantic genre, which we learnt about in the language arts class. We continue reading, with reverence and a dropped jaw, until everything comes crashing down in Chapter 3. The sin, the blame game, the defiance and then, the metaphor.

And that is the focus of this blog – Metaphor! And you will know why in a bit.

I read the first few Chapters of the Bible again – to identify the first Metaphor ( I confess..Google was my first research resort, but lack of convincing, straight forward answer, I ventured to discover it myself.”)

And the first metaphor, I believe, comes in the form of hope – hope of atonement and a restoration. It makes its appearance in the episode where God Himself, clothes Adam and Eve with garments of skin. The very act, metaphorical to the prerequisite of sacrifice for the atonement of sin.

^” The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.”

Genesis. 3:21

One such metaphor, that took me by surprise and confusion when I first began learning about Christian faith is the comparison of the Lord Himself to a Lamb. Like many great lessons in life, understanding, realization, and the sheer beauty and profound meaning behind the metaphor came gradually.

All the research, contemplation, renewed clarity came as a result of a roasted rack of a Lamb dinner!

An aromatic, flavorful, piquant spice mixture is delicately (Who am I kidding? It’s me- aggressively is the appropriate adverb) rubbed all over the rack of lamb.

A sear on the stove top and a final journey in the oven, for just the right amount of time gives a decadently, juicy meat, which would fall off the bone, with just a nudge of a fork.

The Lord is metaphorical to the lamb, literally (a sheep, that is less than a year old) for many a reason. His death, paving our way to heaven and providing a sure atonement is the primary one.

William Blake puts it in simply in his poem, “The Lamb.” :

 Little Lamb I’ll tell thee,
         Little Lamb I’ll tell thee!
He is called by thy name,
For he calls himself a Lamb: 

He is meek & he is mild, 
He became a little child: 
I a child & thou a lamb, 
We are called by his name.

~ “The Lamb” by William Blake

We are called by HIS name!