PASTOR CRAIG’S WEEKLY DEVOTION April 16, 2014 “Tinker Toys and Lincoln Logs” To Connect More Deeply: Read Psalm 139 I loved all of the things that I could make when I was kid…with Tinker Toys, I mean, and Lincoln Logs. Both of these play sets came in a tall tube with a tin lid. The picture, on the outside of the container, showed smiling kids making elaborate shapes and scenes with these innovative toys. Tinker Toys were basically round wooden objects with holes around the edges into which fit short and long green pieces of wood. By connecting all of the sticks and circles you could build an alien creature or atomic structure. Your imagination was your greatest asset as you dumped the contents out of the long tube each time and started connecting them together. Lincoln Logs also came in a tube and looked like real miniature logs. You stacked them by fitting the chinks in the wood together. You could make log cabins, forts, towers and fences. The only limitation was one’s mind. The finished product was some structure that fit well together complete with a green roof or two that was included to top off any house or fort. I could play with these toys for hours. There was something satisfying about fitting things together and being able to admire the finished product. When I was done playing I could simply take the things apart and put them back in their canister. But, when things do not fit together we become frustrated. Unlike Tinker Toys or Lincoln Logs, our everyday life experience and the journey of faith do not always appear to fit together very well. Often times the “holes and the sticks” don’t seem to connect very well. We can become discouraged at the side of a hospital bed of our friend or loved one when the treatment does not seem to be working, when our prayers appear to go unanswered, when our desires and God’s don’t seem to match up. Connecting with God may seem much harder than fitting pieces of precut wood together. But, it doesn’t have to be. Though the biblical account of Jesus’s life, death and resurrection is 2,000 years old, it is told and retold every year during this Holy Week so that we have yet another opportunity to find ourselves in the story. Time and changing customs of worship are designed to help today’s culture connect to the story and journey of faith. The church is to be this wonderful conduit to communicate how each person can connect to Jesus and enter into a meaningful relationship with him. Holy Week and Easter is a great time to hear the story again and to discern where each of us connects. Depending on our life situation, we may resonate with the joy of entering into Jerusalem or the betrayal of a friend during the Last Supper. We may align ourselves with the suffering and persecution of Jesus or the healing and hope that comes when the dead becomes alive. We may find ourselves drinking the sweet wine of Passover or the bitter vinegar offered on the cross. The point is that each of us can connect or reconnect to Jesus and our life of faith anew each day or each year if we put ourselves in the presence of a community of faith. We can all build and strengthen our relationship with God as we allow the pieces to connect together through the creativity and imagination of our Creator. Tomorrow is the day we celebrate the Last Supper of Christ. (7:00pm) Friday we will commemorate the death of Jesus. (7:00pm) Sunday we will arrive at the tomb to discover it is empty. (8:15am, 9:30am and 11:00am) Each of these days is an opportunity to put pieces of our faith journey together with our respective experiences of life. Psalm 139 is a great reminder of how well God knows us even when we feel we do not know God. God is always ready and available to connect with us regardless of the shape that we present ourselves. Broken or whole, God can make something beautiful with the pieces of our lives. Plan to come and allow God to help fit the pieces of your life and faith together with much more permanent results than Tinker Toys or Lincoln Logs.
Posted on: Wed, 16 Apr 2014 13:47:44 +0000
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