Each year I anticipate teaching my AP Literature class about the Romantic Period for a variety of reasons.  However, teaching Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein is by far the highlight of the unit.  I love watching my students as they first appreciate the novel because it is so different from what they expected and then expand that with an appreciation for the imagery and meaning behind the fascinating story.  I hope that it is a novel...and a unit...that they never forget. 

There is much that we can learn from the story of Victor Frankenstein and the creature that he brings to life.  Victor starts with the best of intentions...to contribute to society in some meaningful way.  However, that ambition takes a dangerous turn as he seeks to create life, something that should only be in the hands of our Creator in heaven.  Yet even though I can identify with Victor as he is forced to deal with the consequences of this ambition, it is the creature that I tend to sympathize with more so than his creator.  The creature is grotesque and feared in society.  He attempts to befriend a suffering family in the forest by helping them to survive and as soon as he dares to show his face, he is rejected as a dangerous monster.  As a result, he becomes the vicious and murderous creature that everyone fears him to be and seeks to make Victor's life miserable in the process. 

I have always struggled with feelings of alienation from the world in which God has placed me.  I long to disappear into the background and hide away from anything that causes me to stand-out.  Lately, I have allowed those feelings to consume me and I use them as an excuse to back away from anyone who could potentially hurt me.  This is no way to live...this is no way to love...

Then almost a couple of weeks ago, I developed a skin condition which has caused me to develop a rash over a good portion of my body.  It takes several months to heal.   I have tried to cover it with clothes, scarves, my hair, and yet it continues to spread and I am standing out more than ever before.  People at the store hesitate before taking my money and students whisper in the hallway.  I feel even more despised and rejected...but there is ONE who was more despised and rejected than I feel...my Creator. 

I am called to love with a love that demonstrates the love of my Creator and I cannot do that when I am blinded by my own fears and doubts.  He was rejected by friends, and killed by enemies.  He stood on this earth and faced more than I can even imagine and yet he faced it all with an attitude of "not my will but Thine be done."  The more that I seek to "fit-in," will take me further from the purpose that I was created for...to love others just as I have been loved.  This love requires action.  It requires me to never stop seeking to meet the needs of those around me, regardless of how I may feel rejected. 

So today am an joyful that I don't fit-in and that for a couple of months I will have a physical reminder of what my Creator went through on this earth...for it is a reminder as we approach the Christmas season that my Creator was born in a manger to become a man and die so that we might live.