Creative Writing Prompt #15 Part 3: A Covering Beyond the Mask

 Hey Guys!

I (L.) am back with part 3 of my writing prompt! In case you haven't noticed, I am making this up as I go along and as I type this I don't even know if it be the conclusion. :P I am assuming you all need at least a refresher on Parts 1 and 2, so go ahead and get that here. All parts of the Mask story will come up with the most recent at the top. You can also find them individually on our Writing Prompts page. So here we go...

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------



To me, being covered had always meant hiding behind a lie. How could my sin be covered without deceit in my spirit? It didn't make sense! But then again God almost never seems to make sense at first glance. I felt so close to hope and yet I still couldn't quite grasp it, so I finally decided to ask for help. I have a leader named  at youth group who knows a lot about the Bible, so I asked if we could talk one day after church the next Sunday. "Sure," she answered, taking a seat on the edge of the stage. "What's on your mind?" I hadn't really planned to explain what was going on; I just wanted to ask her to explain the verse. But I was having such a hard time keeping my mask up with all of these questions swimming around in my head. "I... I read this verse and I don't really understand it." I stammered, flipping my Bible open. "'Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven,'" I read from Psalm 32:1-2. "'Whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.' How can you cover something up without being deceitful?"

"You know, Romans 4:7-8 actually quotes the first part of that passage." said Sarah, pulling out her phone to look it up "Oh, here we go. 'Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,
and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.' Before that Paul was talking about Abraham and how his faith in God was counted as righteousness. He wasn't saved by works, because no one, not even the greatest people in that Bible were good enough. It's not like he hid his sin from God though. In a sense, God hides our sin from Himself in Jesus." She started looking up another verse, and I was wondering how she knew so much about the Bible and why she thought this was making any more sense to me than the original verse. I think so far she had basically said that this verse wasn't really about wearing masks.

"Here is a verse about how God chooses not to see our sin." said my leader. "Jeremiah 31:34 says, 'And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, "Know the LORD," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.'"

"Isn't that awesome? We have direct access to God because He choses to forget about our sin! He can do that because Jesus already paid the penalty for it. So when it says in Psalms that the person whose sin is covered and has no deceit in their spirit is blessed, it means that they are sinful like everyone else but they don't they to hide it on their own. They let Jesus cover it for them. Make sense?"

"I think so." I answered feeling freedom even closer, giving me anxious courage. "I've been trying to hide it myself, though. Can you help me give it to Jesus?" I asked, close to tears.

"Let's pray." Said Sarah.

 We asked God to help me let go and trust him and it was really uncomfortable, but freedom felt closer every second. I couldn't stop the tears from falling and beginning to weaken my Mask. Sarah held me tight as I asked God to take it and as it began to fall, I started to push it back into place but I knew it wouldn't do any good at this point. I peeled it off and tore it apart. I knew I had a lot of work to do, but I knew that no matter what people see and think when God looks at me, He sees the perfection of Jesus so I don't have anything to worry about. I took a deep breath and let it go.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Okay, now to explain my inspiration. As many of you know, I went to a camp this summer called Masquerade. You can read about it from my perspective here. I liked the literary possibilities in the mask theme, and I hoped writing about it would help me understand the meaning behind it. While I was considering the idea, one of my friends pinned a Creative writing prompt that said, "She took a deep breath and let it go" and I used it at the beginning and end of the story. How do you think it turned out?
-L.

-Scripture quotations are from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved."

The Woods

Hey people!!! 

   Here's a story that i had to write for a school assignment. It was hard but fun to write, however, its a bit deppressing, so tell me what you think about it!!

             *      *      *      *      *    

   Jason was lost in a forest, that much he knew. 

   He had heard many stories about this forest, of how those who went in were never seen again. No one knew what happened to them, or why they left. They never found bodies, or even a clothing item. Jason had been told many different theories, some said they went to the big cities to become famous, others said it was wild animals, or aliens, but one said it was fairies. 

  'Fairies..ha!' Jason had laughed at that, 'what! Do you think tinker bell came to kidnap the children and take them to Neverland?!' 

  He couldn't think of anything else more ridiculous. However, the old woman who had suggested it, looked very sane, and had continued to insist that it was true, that she had seen it happen with her own eyes. She said, no one could go into that forest willingly and ever return home again. 

   'What about those who went unwillingly?' He had wondered. 

   He had decided to prove her wrong, and soon set out. After walking a while he quickly lost track of time. Before he knew it, the sun had begun to set, his house was no longer visible, and the trail he was following was no where to be seen. It was pitch black, for the moon didn't show between the trees.

  All he was going to do, was stay in the forest for two hours, and then go back. unfortunately, it had been four hours since he had seen any signs of civilization.

  He was completely lost and nothing looked even remotely familiar. The fear had long ago set in. He shivered at the though of having to spend the night there and he began to run in the general direction that he thought he had come from. The trees seemed to reach for him with their gnarled branches, and he tripped over a fallen branch. An owl screeched above him. 

  He began to imagine tiny things flit in and out of the edge of his vision, but then they were real. A small flying object that lit up like a glowing Christmas light. Suddenly there were more of them, and they were everywhere. 

   They resembled common birds in size, and flickered different shades of color, a deep mahogany here,  a forest green there, others dark blue, and some violet. They swirled and danced in a breathtaking array of light and color. 

  Jason stood, looking in amazed wonder. He still couldn't see what they were but he was positive the old lady's guess was correct.

  Fairies. 

  He had no fear of being carried off by them, they were so tiny it was comical to think they could make a human disappear. One came close to him...he held his breath, too afraid of frightening it away. 

  He saw that it was, indeed a fairy, but it looked nothing like the usual storybook fairies. 

  Glowing dark shades of brown and orange, it resembled the human figurine of any 'normal' fairy-whatever that means-but the resemblances stopped there. It had tiny horns like a mountain goat, that curled down its back reaching mid-waist, almost like hair. Its feet were bare and looked slightly transparent, glowing bright orange. It had a long tail that flicked and curled like a cats. Jason expected there to be wings on its back but there was nothing. It simply walked on the air, moving as it wanted, like it was walking on an invisible surface. It surpassed its name in the 'fair' aspect, for it was beautiful, and dark. It wore a flowing black cloak over fitted clothes. Its features were sharp, and its cats eyes showed wisdom far beyond their years. Its ears were rounded like a humans, and covering every inch of visible skin were markings, curling black tattoos. 

  Jason held his hand out, as the Fairy came closer to him. It looked at him cocking its head and beckoning for the others to come near as well. Jason stiffened and held his breath as they all came closer to him. They quickly surrounded him and began to comunicate with each other, they seemed to be arguing about something. Jason still didnt move, but instead simply observed. He reveled at the fact that they actually existed, but that also meant that the old lady was right. He wasn't sure why she had thought it was the fairies that made the people vanish. They seemed harmless enough, and they were beautiful. 

   Then they looked like they had come to some agreement and the first fairy came closer to him and simply touched his still hand. 

   A pain like no other he had ever felt, shot up his arm and through his body, he fell to the floor moaning from the pain. Slivers of icy fear spread through him, stealing his breath and suffocating him. 

  Then the other fairies slowly descended upon him. At each ones contact another wave of pain shot through him. He screamed, silent and long from lack of air. Fighting them was useless, he was immobile from the pain. 

   In that moment Jason knew that he would never be seen by any living man again. He should never have listened to those stories, never have gone into the forest, much less at night. He could no longer think over the pain, it was excruciating, filling his head, covering his sight, muting his hearing. They were lifting him up..carrying him away. He began to grow numb to the pain, it faded to a dull throb. He moaned, and begged them to take him back home. The orange fairy looked at him. Then..

  Black.

  Nothing. 

  Everything was gone. 

 

            *      *      *      *      *

E.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!-L.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We have now posted on this blog during 3 different years!

 I never know whether to make resolutions but this year I decided to try to do things to improve my mood like a better sleep schedule and eating healthy foods more often.

Did any of you make resolutions? Feel free to share in the comments and in like a month I might ask if you actually did them. Accountability is good and you can always ask if I have been keeping mine too. Actually that would be great!

God really loves you!!!!!!!!

-L.
P.S. Check out our New page A Living Sacrifice!