Onyemaechi Emmanuel Okoro - Gods Best Gift, in an Ugly Wrapping

Gods Best Gift,
In an ugly Wrapping

Onyemaechi Emmanuel Okoro

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2013 Onyemaechi Emmanuel Okoro. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 6/4/2013

ISBN: 978-1-4817-6028-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4817-6026-3 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4817-6027-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013910095

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Contents

I am using this opportunity to thank my beloved wife, Rose - Akwaugo, whose inexhaustible love and support has brought a lot of joy to our family, and to my precious children: Ezinne, Chiamaka and Onyemaechi II, for their support and prayers while getting this book ready.

My special gratitude to my elder brother, Hon. Eberechukwu - Boniface whose support and guidance brought out the best in me, and my sister Chinyere - Agatha for her prayers.

Where do I start to thank my cousin, Dr Mathew N. Ibewiro, who is my best friend and my great fan. I dont know what I would do without you.

I am deeply indebted to my friend and mentor, Prof. James Strazzella whose immeasurable kindness and support can never be forgotten. God will continue to bless you abundantly.

I cannot thank you enough, Prof. Gerald J. A. Nwankwo, a gifted man, whose encouragement and guidance helped me to complete this book. What can I tell you, my buddy, Prof. Dr. Chieke Evans Ihejirika, a venerated educator, I know I can always count on you; your invaluable suggestions and corrections are highly appreciated.

I also thank my friends Dr. James Nwachukwu, Vita Oguledo, Anthony Njoku - suji, Ricky Moors, Chief Johny Amugo, Paschal Osuji, and Dr. Emmanuel Nmagu - Ede-Nimo, for their consistent support to me. And, my dear friend Dr. Ugo Anusionwu, the Action man, whose unflinching support is inestimably treasured.

I am very thankful to all of you, who have supported me in many ways, especially Chi Achi, Dr. (Judge) Anthony Rulli and Judge Rui and Marina Cascaldi, and other friends I could not list due to space and time.

I cannot close without thanking Fr. Kieran Udeze - ome-ihe-ukwu of Iwena Tansi Igbo Community Chaplaincy, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, whose support and prayers have been inspirational to me. God bless you.

All errors in this book are completely mine.

This book is dedicated to my parents of the blessed memories: Ignatius and Maria, and my brother Linus and sister, Angelina, who are also serving the Lord in heaven.

Never let the fear of fall becloud your ambition, we all fall at one point in life or another. Your zeal to rise should not go down with you. Raise your hand each time you fall, for your rescue may be closer than you know.

Author

O. Emma. Okoros Gods Best Gift is an epiphany. It is an epiphany because Okoro reveals the image of God to his readers through his personal experiences. Gods Best Gift gives several accounts of the presence of God among His people, a God from whom all things come, a God by whom every endeavor is consummated, and a God in whom everything is made perfect. It is this art of revelation that makes Okoros Gods Best Gift a family companion. In a distinctive storytelling voice, Okoro invites his readers to follow him through what Mark Twain describes as everymans journey, a journey through the dark alley when hope seems hopeless, yet for people with faith and hope, it culminates in a spiritual communion with God, when God takes over from where humanity stops.

Okoro manifests that God always watches over His own, and that is why He is always willing and ready to intervene whenever He seeks out one of His because to Him, every creation has the a special worth, including the perfect and the not-so-perfect, including Saint Paul, including Saint Augustine. In his own simple way, as he journeys to the phone booth in South America, Okoro doesnt know what is going to happen next, but God watches over His own. In Gods Best Gift , Okoro demonstrates that when God wants His own, He goes for them; it is God who seeks out His own.

Okoro encourages his readers to know God and go to Him through prayers. He believes that prayers will help believers stand out conspicuously where God will seek them out because He is watching.

The conversational voice of Gods Best Gift , its simplicity of language, and the possibility of its theme make me proud to recommend it to any family that has a roof to share with God; it is an invaluable travel ticket to a celestial banquet.

Gerald J. A. Nwankwo

April, 2013

T he question whether or not God exists is not a simple question. It has a lot of intricacies both in definition and understanding. There are various people who have difficulties believing in the existence of God due to philosophical, theological or logical reasons, and there are many others who wonder why any person, basically, would doubt anything about God. The explanation of who God is, and his creation of the world, is ungraspable within an ordinary human representation, mostly with the concept that God has no Beginning and created the earth from nothing. We can only assimilate it as most other mysteries embodied in our faith.

Within or outside all the constructive and comparative theories and hypothesis, Aristotles notion was: Since God, as ultimate final cause, is the perfection toward which all things tend and since thinking is the most perfect activity with which we are familiar, the best analogue for Gods nature is thinking.

We would like to, but would not have the opportunities, to discourse the generality of God. Lets particularize this idea by firstly, reflecting on this Gods real entity. The thinking and reasoning about God Being is one of the highest forms that mans knowledge of God can take: to know that we do not know God insofar as we recognize that Gods essence lies beyond all that which we know of him. As Pope John Paul II dissected in one of his teachings: Since our knowledge of God is limited, our language about him is equally so. We can name God only by taking creature as our starting point, and in accordance with our limited human ways of knowing and thinking. And, Aquinas did not relent in his notion that irrespective of our impression of God which might change, as man always does, but this does not signify a change in the Creator, but only a change in us.

To further this deliberation here, it will be condensed to the existence of God, most especially, attempting to enhance our understandings based on [our] faith and common knowledge. Considering from both the ancient and contemporary scholars, and from the paradigm of their arguments and inquisitions, it becomes imperative to be allied with Thomas Aquinas, the Doctor of the Church, who after elaborate synthesis of the Platonic, Aristolelian and other philosophical scholars of virtue and theological thinkers, in conjunction with those who patently integrated the existential realization, has affirmed that there is God. God is that Being Whole whose nature it is to exist. God is existence in itself.