by Georgia Stewart

Created on: February 22, 2009

Several admired, honored and respected human beings come to mind that I would like to write about but it's difficult to choose between Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King and various other people who've contributed greatly to humanities history. Nevertheless it is evident that the most noble people that I can think of all have one thing in common; they modelled their lives on the same man. A man whose life was recorded centuries ago and who is still read about and talked about today and will be as long as humanity exists.

Historical documents written by Josephus and Philemon, who were non-Christian historians in his life time record his existence. Therefore it is probably safe to assume that he lived. Scholars agree on this point but was he a god, simply a man or both? I will lay that question aside for my purposes here because in my opinion he is without a doubt the most admired, honored and respected human being who ever lived.

Adherents to Gandhi's religion usually place several images of gods on their walls. When visiting his home a man asked him why he had only one and Gandhi replied that the depicted person was the one whose teaching he most admired and followed.

The three largest religions in the world agree that he existed. A documentary by a Jew stated that the Jewish people feel that he was theirs and have great affection and respect for him. Unlike the popular notion that they do not wish to associate their religion with him they clearly claimed him as an important part of it. The documentary surprised and impressed upon me the magnitude of the charisma and long lasting pulling power of the man in question.

A practising Muslim has been teaching me about the love and respect for him that they possess. She shared a movie about his life as written about in the Koran and the similarities between it and the Christian written account are astounding to me because I had not realised that the Muslim and Christian texts contain so much that is identical!

The noble, compassionate, inspiring and life changing man that I refer to has transformed and enhanced so many millions of lives over the centuries and continues to do so. Even those who do not believe that he was a historical figure probably can not deny that the teaching that is claimed to be from his lips, the parables that he supposedly told and the stories about his actions depict the way that we should all behave towards one another.

Love, kindness, respect and gentleness are the attributes that are the most brilliant in humanity because if everyone displayed them the world would not be in the fragile and uncertain position that it is in today. We would each preserve our planet and nurture and heal each other. We would be good caretakers of the earth. Is there any wisdom greater than this?

I write about the man who inspired the most inspiring people in history. The one whose life motivates the motivators, strengthens the strong, teaches the teachers, sparks the imaginations of the imaginative and heals the spirits of the healers. I applaud the one who lifts the one's who have fallen, urges us to share our food with the hungry, whose legacy teaches us to give our aid to the helpless and reminds us to love and laugh, and to celebrate being alive!

Whether or not we believe the claim that he is the Son of God we can learn from the lessons of the greatest story ever told, can we not? The most admired, honored and respected human beings who have ever lived did and do! I do not even need to state his name because you were aware of it as soon as you read my first paragraph!

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