Author's Note: Hmmm… it has been a few years, no? I apologize. I had not the time nor motivation to write. Now, at this point in my life, I have little to do so I am back to writing. I cannot say that this is a long-lasting thing, but we shall see.
First, welcome to my new story. It is intended to be short. Not quite a one shot, but not quite a full story. You see, it is more of a commentary. This leads me to my second point: this story is not religious commentary. It is a story about beauty and ugliness in humanity while using the characters of the Book of Job, namely God and the Devil, as some sort of third-party observers. If it comes across as anything but neutral, you must forgive me. It is not intended.
Thank you for reading and please, if you really like this story (or really hate it), leave me a review at the end of the chapter.
-Yours truly,
Raven Sharpe
P.S. I am sorry about the formatting issues earlier. Baruga - thank you for alerting me. Thankfully, I have both internet and electricity today, so I was able to fix them quickly. If there are further issues, please tell me. I will try and fix them as quickly as I can (which may not be very quickly as I have moved to Tanzania and electricity works only most of the time.)
There came a day when God was sitting above admiring all of his creation. It was not perfect. He knew this, but He liked the slips of the cogs in the machine of the world. Secretly, he had been bored with the untiring rituals and perfection of heaven. There was nothing left to do there. It was simply… perfect. And so he created Earth. He had created imperfection. Or maybe imperfection was inherent in something so complex. At first, he had started with the idea of perfection in mind, but at the very end, he had tossed a wrench in the system – free will. He sighed, remembering the implications of that one tiny wrench.
"Going senile, Old Man?" one of those imperfections sneered from behind him.
"Ah, Lucifer. It has been so long. How did you manage to slip past the cherubim this time?"
"It is too easy to fool something so mechanical. No wonder you created these… apes."
"After so many millenia, you still do not understand. There is something beautiful about them in their fragility. Being born, slowly learning, loving, having children, and then passing softly on."
"… and in their violence? Need I remind you of the Khan?"
God sighed again. "That is your side of things. The ugliness of it all. But… I think that ugliness may have to exist for beauty to shine even more exquisitely."
Lucifer grunted. "Personally, I don't believe you or the lumps of mud. Do you really think that if one was created so ugly that… oh, what do those flea-bitten things say… ah! 'he had a face not even a mother could love,' that he would really be allowed to exist in a beautiful world."
"As the humans say, 'love is blind.' I think I prefer that proverb."
"Yesssss… but – do you really believe it?"
God finally turned to look at Lucifer. He was looking no worse for the wear. The past centuries and the invention of gunpowder had certainly made his work easier. If it hadn't been against the rules, he would have thought that Lucifer had been the one to give the French plans to make the guillotine. Finally, he heaved another, deeper sigh. "What is it that you want, Lucifer?"
"Merely a bet… a wager. I create a man as hideous as I possibly can, and you create a soul as beautiful as you can. We see whether or not someone can truly love him."
"Hmm… simple enough. And what are we betting?"
"I believe there's still some countries that are ambiguous territory," Lucifer nonchalantly suggested.
God pondered for a second. "Done. Maybe you will finally see the beauty of my creations."
"And maybe you will finally see their ugliness."
And so it went. Lucifer sculpted the ugliest human being that could still possibly be alive and God went to work shaping a sensitive, intelligent, and musical soul, filling it with all that was beautiful.
Together they decided on a religious servant girl in Rouen, France. God had not wanted the child to be born into wealth and have no chance at a loving wife, while the devil thought with glee that their creation was not only illegitimate, but the son of a servant girl.