Life is like a box...a Mystery Box

Every summer my old church has a tradition where a child is given a box to be filled with an item and brought back the next Sunday to be the topic of the children's sermon. The pastor calls the children up for the children's sermon and opens the box for the first time in front of everyone. He or she must then give a short object lesson on the surprise item. Sometimes it is easy (like when I graciously filled the box with Life Savers for the first mystery box of the summer) and sometimes it is hard (like when a child brings their beloved stuffed lizard toy...at least I think it was a lizard?). It is amazing what everyday items can teach us about God and His love for us.

Today I realized that life is like a mystery box...similar to the box of chocolates talked about in Forrest Gump, you never know what you are going to get, but you know that through it you can learn something about God. Every morning as we open our eyes, we open our mystery box to see the items God has placed for us to figure out more about Him. Its a surprise and just like my church's box, it can be a slam dunk to see God or very difficult.

My mystery box today contained tires. Slowly, over time, my steering wheel has begun shaking at high speeds. At first it only shook a little and only when I was speeding :-/ But recently it has started shaking significantly and most of my highway time. So I though I'd get it checked out. The mechanic knew right away it was probably a balance issue and he was right. My tires were off by 1 ounce and 1/2 ounce! It is amazing what little weight made such a big difference in my driving. So, what did I learn about God? Well, sin creeps into our lives slowly over time. At first it might not seem like a big deal, but all of the sudden we realize it has affected our lives more than we thought! We need to get re-balanced with God. Even a little sin can throw off our balance and make a huge difference. The funny thing is, now that my tires are re-balanced and corrected, I realize what great driving I was missing out on! My ride is so smooth now! Only when we look to the correct way and our Pure God do we realize how off our balance is! We realize what we're missing out on.

Now its interesting to note, my drive became smoother because my tires were balanced, but its still not always easy to drive. I still have to avoid pot holes, inattentive drivers, and you never know what else might be on the road. Its similar to when people become Christ followers. Some people think if you follow Christ your life will become easy..."easy" by the worlds standards. It just becomes easier in the way having my tires balanced makes driving easier. I still have to deal with the crap on the road and Christians still have to deal with the crap that comes with life, but being in balance, being a Christian gives one a "comforter". It is easier, not by the world's standards, but in a different way. More later maybe...