Mudball (The Story of Job)

  I remember the first time this happened. I couldn’t figure it out. All the work he was doing. First, lights and dirt and water. Then flesh. I was curious I admit. I mean what was it all for? And then that last day when he finished and called all of the Sons of God to look at what he did. I had never seen him look like that. Never.  He was pleased before, beaming; now he was soft looking. A strange mixture of joy and well…I don’t know, I had never seen that look before.

  I looked to see what it was all about and felt… fear.

  He had taken some of that dirt and made mud out of it, and then he breathed on it. His breath.  God’s breath. The mud had stood up and looked at the face of his creator, and when he did he grew. That’s what it seemed like. It seemed like he just became bigger, greater. He took on the same look that the Master himself wore.

  It scared me yes, and it really made me mad. I was filled with a disgust that was almost violent. What was this mudball that he made to be like himself?  How could he do something so…  It was repulsive to me. I leaned over to the Master and whispered, “I can make him worship me in a matter of hours.” And I walked out.

  It was easier, and harder, than I thought. It was hard to get his attention. He was so caught up with the Master and with all the things they were doing. So, I had to  become crafty. I got the attention of his companion. She was just like him, but so different. But, once I had their attention it was so easy. It’s been that way ever since.

  And, so, here we were again. He was beaming as he called us all over, and he had that strange soft look he reserved for his mud creations. He was pointing out a man. I already knew who it would be. That strange man whose attention I had not been able to get. This man really believed he was God’s gift to earth. He went about ruling and reigning just like it was supposed to have been. He didn’t give me my due.

  The Master looked at me and said, “Isn’t he amazing? He loves me.” 

  “Yes, of course. The way you favor him? He’d be a fool not to. He’s in it for what you do for him and you know it”

  “What do you propose?”

  “Let me at him and I can get him to turn on you before the sun goes down.”

  “Okay,” he agreed, “But, don’t you hurt him.”

  So, I did what I do. I killed, I destroyed. I caused pain. I took order and created chaos. I blew and stomped and shouted and caused destruction and pain. I did some myself, and whispered the rest into the ears of those who listened. I took everything he loved and everything he valued. But, I left the wife. I had her ear. 

  He was devastated. But, he still wouldn’t turn my way. He thought the Master did it all to him but he still kept talking to him, not to me. 

Once again, the Master called us all over with that same proud look on his mighty face and said, “Look, Isn’t he amazing? He loves me.” Then he looked at me.

  Well, if there was anything I had learned about this creature he called Man is that they valued their nasty flesh more than anything. They couldn’t even take it out of the world the Master had created it for but they would give me their very being to save it. 

  So I answered him, “Of course he didn’t turn on you; you wouldn’t let me touch that precious flesh of his.”

  He was quiet for a long time. “Okay, but don’t kill him,” he finally said.

  I sent a plague upon his skin that made him as abhorrent to his own kind as he had always been to me. He was tormented almost out of his mind. He accused the Master of being unfair. He seemed to think somehow he was above such pain. But, he never turned to me.

  I didn’t come next time the Master called us. I heard later he had given the man more than he had ever had before.  Fool mudball. 

  What if the Master was right? What if the man really did love him? The fear surged inside of me.