“Oh! no mortal could support the horror of that countenance. A mummy again endued with animation could not be so hideous as that wretch. I had gazed on him while unfinished; he was ugly then; but when those muscles and joints were rendered capable of motion, it became a thing such as even Dante could not have conceived.” Mary Shelly, Frankenstein

Frankenstein is a character that is familiar to many of us, even if we have not actually read the original story (it’s in my to-read list on my Nook) ; and we have come to recognize the many variations this creature has taken over the years. We see the stitched forehead, the bolts in the sides of the neck, the stiff posture, and we immediately recognize who is being portrayed. Many things have been written and filmed about this creature. Sometimes, Frankenstein is misunderstood, sometimes feared. Oftentimes, Frankenstein is hunted with the goal to destroy this aberration, this perversion of nature.

For the many people who have seen this as a sad story, the reactions are different; compassion, regret, sorrow, and pity may move us to wish the story ended differently for the creature, and he had been given another chance, or a different beginning. Perhaps, we feel sympathy, because we see a little bit of this creature in ourselves. After all, we have an innate ability to goof things up; and in all likelihood, life has encouraged the tendency in us to be less than wonderful. We lost our temper that one time…We let an opportunity pass us by…We let that person slip out of our lives…We messed up…We got it wrong…We failed.

BUT!! It doesn’t have to be the end of the world! We are ALL that we are, but we are ONLY what we are. We have the potential to be amazing OR disappointing. Human beings have to accept the good and the bad, because that’s what it is. The amazing thing is that we don’t have to go it alone and stump along incomplete for the rest of our lives. We can be restored to wholeness and soundness. There is Someone who stands with His arms open, waiting to receive us in all our deformed awkwardness. All we have to do is to run to Him and fall into those arms. He loves us. He cherishes us. He longs for us to receive this amazing, shocking, undeserved love that He freely gives.

This person is Jesus, who died for us, and rose again. His act of love echoes through all of time, losing none of its power as each generation faces the choice to accept Him or reject Him.

You and I are Frankenstein; but we need to accept the fact of our brokenness and need before we can be healed.

“Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived.But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Colossians 3:5-17