AN: These different events are not listed entirely in order by which time they happened, so bear with me. Also, I didn't include many events that have happened and maybe would have been good to.
I would actually like this to be a joint effort. Any of you who have an idea, send it to me in a review, but first put 'Slideshow Idea' before you write the event you think I should include. If you want to just give me the idea or overall view, do so and I'll write it myself, but it would also be cool if you want to write it how you want to be posted and I could put your name by it. Whatever you want to do. Thanks!
Slideshow of the Human Race
If every being existing today were to sit in front of a huge screen and a projector would play us a slideshow of humanity, what would we see? Would we be proud of our past, or ashamed to see our mistakes replayed for all to see? And what of our triumphs and successes?
A man is sitting in a lush, green forest. There are trees and flowers all around him and he is thoroughly enjoying himself, in a state of obliviousness and is not aware that he is completely naked. This man loves God and has seen Him face-to-face.
This man is the man who named all of the animals, who is the first being to ever walk the earth. Adam.
A voice calls to him, a woman, who is running toward where he sits. She is holding an apple and starts explaining to him how God has been deceiving the two of them; if they would eat the fruit from the forbidden tree, the Tree of Knowledge, they would know as much as the Almighty God!
Adam bites into the apple that Eve hands him.
The first sin, mankind's first mistake. And what is sad is that any one of us would have eaten that fruit, too. For we fall prey to the Devil's schemes and temptation every day.
Next, an angry man with blood on his hands stares at the dead corpse of his brother. He was the one that killed him—his own flesh and blood!
The reason: God liked his brother's gift to Him more than his sacrifice of the crops from his field. He'd wanted to be the best.
A beautiful Egyptian woman stands at the edge of the Nile River, for she is bathing. She notices a basket floating downstream, and curiously she wades out deeper into the water to catch the basket to see what it is in it. To her surprise, she sees a baby!
A beautiful baby, one that is destined to become a very important man, not only to the Israelites but to every single person reading the Bible today. This baby would become Moses.
Pharaoh's men are hot on the tail of the Israelites and their leader, Moses, as they make their escape from the oppressive and harsh Egyptians and their cruel treatment. But one great barrier stands in the way: the Red Sea.
All hope is nearly lost, except for one. Hope in God. Moses, through the Holy Spirit, raises his staff, clears his throat, and to all the people's amazement, the body of water parted in two!
They race through the gap in the water, and when all of the Israelites were through, the Red Sea gushed back together again. Pharaoh's men went with it.
Moses has just received the Ten Commandments from God, and he makes his way down the mountain, only to see that his people have made an idol, a golden calf, and were now worshiping it.
The earth's people have turned away from God, and they are now stuck in their immoral ways. Ignorant and accusing, they not only overlook Noah as he builds the Ark that would save the human race, but they make fun of him as he works day and night to have this completed.
Noah's family, uncorrupted by the sinful people, trusted in God and helped gather two of every animal on the earth. They were faithful people and remained on the Ark for forty days and forty nights. They were also the only people in the world to withstand the flood sent by God. And the first people to ever witness a rainbow.
A woman sat beside a sleeping man with a razor in hand. This man she knelt by was the most powerful man in physical strength known on earth. And by cutting his hair, she would drain him of every ounce of strength he had more than any regular man.
He'd been in love with her, trusted her, and she was only there because of the silver offered to her by the rulers of the Philistines. With only a moment's hesitation, she took the blade to his hair, and when it was hidden behind her back she leaned close and called to him, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you!"
And as he awoke he realized that the Lord had left him nothing but the ordinary man's strength.
A boy, who was nothing but a boy, gathered three smooth stones from a riverbed. His plan? To defeat the Philistine champion, a giant of monstrous size, a mountain compared to David.
All he could do was trust in the Lord and ask Him for courage as he stood to present himself to the giant, who was over nine feet tall and wore armor unlike his supposedly unworthy opponent.
Standing tall in the Lord and for his people, David only reached calmly into his pouch for a stone and his slingshot when the giant Goliath moved closer to attack.
As the giant moved confidently to strike David, intending to kill him with the first stroke, he was not prepared for the stone that came whirling through the air. It struck him on the head, sinking into his forehead.
David, who had not even the support or confidence of his own people because of his size, was victorious because of his courage—and most of all his faith in the Lord.
A woman walked timidly down the hall to the King's courts. No one, especially no female, was permitted to enter into the presence of the King without his permission, and this may result in death if not accepted by the King, no matter whether this particular woman was the Queen or not.
But Queen Esther was making a plea for her people, the Jewish people. They were being treated unfairly, and if she did not attempt to show her husband his wrong decision, it could mean the deaths of hundreds—maybe thousands—of Jews.
Many people were praying for her and for the Jewish people, and Esther knew she would not be influential without the help of her Lord.What she did not know as she walked anxiously down the corridor, praying for courage, was that in the end her faith in God would bring justice and fair treatment to her people.
A woman cried out, her voice piercing the night. Heads turned, and some wondered why there were people in a stable that starry evening.
The shepherds and angels and the men from far away knew why. All of the inns were full, but no matter. That baby that the woman had just given birth to was the Son of God.
A crowd gathered at the top of a hill. There had just been a procession through the city, that man that claimed to be the Son of God himself had been put to justice. Humiliated and wearing a crown of thorns, Jesus of Nazareth carried his own cross to the hill.
And there he hung, nailed to the wood. Dead. The crowd cheered, not paying any heed to the women weeping at the foot of the cross. Little did any of them know that this man was truly sent from Heaven. He would not be dead for long.
This year was a very important year, one that would be remembered throughout all history. A little boy sat watching TV, but these were no cartoons. He had just watched the takeoff of the first spaceship to ever reach the moon.
Another trainload of people had reached their destination. Most of them were women, useless women. Jewish women. They filed out of the trains, most of them looking around to see where they were. They had not had a pleasant ride, but neither would they have a pleasant stay. Or rather visit.
The dirty women stood facing the man in charge. After a long lecture about what would be going on, they rushed into the large building, not heeding some of the more experienced women's warnings. They all wanted showers worse than food, to the German's delight. They would get this trainload over with before they knew it.
Little did they know, these 'showers' would end their lives, all because of one detail, big to some people and small to others: they were Jewish.
A man in a camouflage uniform dove into a ditch head-first, knowing if he stayed above ground for too long his life would be gone. It seemed that they were only a few minutes into this battle, and his left sleeve was already drenched in blood from the bullet that had torn through the flesh on his forearm. He was lucky, for if he had only been a few inches to the left, the wound would have been to a major organ, most likely to his heart.
This war he was fighting seemed to rage on forever, a never-ending battle that he had been willing, if only for the first five minutes, to fight. Now, as he raised both his arms to operate his gun and gritting his teeth against the pain, he wished he had never volunteered to fight for his country.
For to him, this war could have been solved in a non-violent way. Even though there was killing going on in other countries, the United States considered it "white man's burden" to 'civilize' the Philippines. Blood, his blood and everybody else's was being wasted because of that. One of the many consequences of a catfight blown way out of proportion was that lives—precious lives!—were being spent.
A smiling groom watches his bride in white walk down the aisle. The organ is being played in the background, but all he sees is the woman that was going to be his bride and all he heard was his heart beating. He was getting married!
Buttering a bagel to eat for breakfast early in the morning as her children ate at the table in front of her, a mother watched the commotion going on in New York from thousands of miles away. On the TV screen, replays of a plane slamming into a skyscraper caught her attention.
Minutes later, before her eyes as live footage, the two skyscrapers collapsed. But she had no more time to think about this, because her kids had to be at school in ten minutes and she at work in twenty. She didn't know that this would be a sad day for America, and that the tragedy she'd glimpsed on the news would be all of the talk at work.
The day was September eleventh.
A woman in a dress walked with a baby in a stroller down the street. The picture of innocence. A wonderful painting.
Only seconds later, the ground under that very street shook like an earthquake. Buildings were demolished, sending debris every which way. Many were dead, hundreds were injured.
Many students gather in an auditorium, concentrating on what is before them. On stage, a girl plays piano. Next a boy shows how he can juggle. Card tricks, instrument playing, magic, poems, and more are displayed in a talent show.
But the one thing that manages to touch everybody's heart is when the little girl gets up, and in a surprisingly strong and beautiful voice she sings into the microphone, "God Bless America".
A man sits in a prison cell, but this is no ordinary sentence. He is not there for one year, or ten years, or twenty years. He is cemented into this room for his entire life.
He has raped, he has stolen, he has murdered, and has had a history of drug use. This man has long since been a victim of temptation, and the hard walls he stares at are his consequences. For life.