Author

Numerous cases are known when their own creations made the authors suffer. In 1910, the French Aéro-Club de France announced a prize of 10,000 francs which would be awarded to the inventor of the best parachute. Among the ones who responded to this tempting offer was Franz Reichelt, a tailor. He made a parachute in the form of a cloak suit, and proceeded to test it. At first, the author of the invention dropped dummies in the parachute cloak from the window of his apartment. Then he himself jumped from the height of the second floor onto a haystack. The parachute worked, but not every time.

On February 4, 1912, Reichelt announced a presentation of his invention at the 63 meter height of the Eiffel Tower platform. Lots of people gathered to watch it. The author wanted to use a mannequin dressed in the parachute-suit, but he changed his mind at the last moment, and decided to perform the jump himself. In front of the bystanders and journalists, Franz leaped down. The parachute barely opened a second before he struck the ground, but it was too late. Reichelt crashed to his death.

The news about the tragedy traversed the whole world, and it seemed to have ended the history of the parachute. But the tailor’s invention contained a valuable idea: his parachute was portable. That was exactly what the bulky parachutes of the time lacked! Later on, an inventor from St. Petersburg named Gleb Kotelnikov refined Reichelt’s idea and patented a workable “RK-1” parachute in France. His invention with a few future improvements saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of people around the world.

The Lord God is the Author of our world. He invented everything visible and invisible, including man. Adam and Eve were created pure, but then they sinned and left their Creator. To solve the conflict, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to our earth on Christmas night. The Author came to His creation. But Adam’s descendants did not bring joy to their Creator. Like Reichelt the tailor, Jesus Christ also died at the hands of His own creation:

“For the Messiah also suffered for sins once for all, an innocent person for the guilty, so that he could bring you to God.” (1 Peter 3:18)

All of this could have been completely gloomy, but God did not leave His Son in the realm of the dead, but raised Him up on the third day! Through His death and resurrection Christ opened the way of salvation to all mankind. The merits of Christ the Author today are a saving “RK-1” for anyone who believes in Him. For you and for me.

· Do you know of any other examples of an author who has suffered from his creation?

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For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Eph. 2:10, NIV)