IMPERFECT DARKNESS © 2002 M.D. KOFFIN THIS DRAFT IS FOR PREVIEWING PURPOSES ONLY. DO NOT COPY OR REDISTRIBUTE THIS MATERIAL WITHOUT THE AUTHOR'S EXPRESSED PERMISSION. Luke 22.53 But this is your hour, and the power of darkness! When He was born there was a lunar eclipse. Not a total eclipse, but near total. On the night of His birth, a bare sliver remained glowing on the outer edge of the moon, casting enough light to reveal the night's secret in a thin circular band. It was like the presentation of a glittering diamond ring at the wedding of the universe. In that moment of imperfect darkness, He heralded his own arrival with a cry more unsettling than a sudden shrill trumpet blast, a wail more piercing than the most urgent emergency siren, a scream louder than the most thunderous sonic boom. In that same moment of imperfect darkness, one hundred and twenty-four thousand nine hundred and three lives were extinguished by this first vocal exhalation. Thirty-eight square miles, give or take a few feet, were laid waste in a single troubled palpitation of His tiny heart. He lay, naked and red under a cold sky, His first cradle the center of an immense crater He had created for Himself with His first breath. The continuing aftershocks lulled Him into a peaceful slumber. As He slept, the moon slowly crept back out of shadow like a fearful witness testing if the coast was now clear. When the rescue crews finally arrived at Ground Zero, they were already stunned to numbness by the total devastation they had witnessed in under two score miles. Nothing could have prepared them for what lay in the center of what used to be downtown Fairbank, exactly where the county hospital used to sit on the corner of Manchester and Freeling. Like the near total eclipse on the night of His birth, this is almost, but not completely His story. IMPERFECT DARKNESS © 2002 M.D. KOFFIN THIS DRAFT IS FOR PREVIEWING PURPOSES ONLY. DO NOT COPY OR REDISTRIBUTE THIS MATERIAL WITHOUT THE AUTHOR'S EXPRESSED PERMISSION.