Batteries Are Included

Ok ok. I just left my blog all lonely and neglected all summer. How awful of me!

Here I am, ready to throw my two cents into the vast waters of blogdom. I've had lots of dreams and visions and insights lately. I've battled a few medical issues. Summer passed by too quickly, but autumn has been warm, inviting and glorious, so who's complaining? (At least, at the moment, I'm not complaining.)

I sat down in my 'God Corner' today. It's a little corner at the end of my sofa where I read scriptures, pray, chat it up with God and worship Him. I love my little spot. Not that I don't talk to Him in other places, but that is kind of... our special place. I will sit down and say, "I'm here." And then, it doesn't take long before I feel Him come to meet with me. I mean, He's here all the time, but there's more. It's a meeting place.

I was sitting there telling God how good He is. I'm bothered right now because there is a real onslaught of voices and writings out there that are attacking the goodness of God. People are saying and writing that He is not good. There are false accusations, slander and libel coming from every direction.

I don't mean the standard, "Why does God let bad things happen?" questions. I mean, out and out accusations from people. I've heard people accuse God of being mean, a bigot (how can God be a bigot... He made everything, so if He says something is a certain way, then it is... I have never had a cake ask me why I made it chocolate instead of lemon and then call me a bigot for that). I've just seen and heard so many derogatory things and I can handle honest questions or someone who's hurt ranting and venting. This is more than that.

It's like... they're slandering my best friend. They have no idea who He is. They don't even talk to Him... except to berate Him, but they presume to know His character. They breathe the air He gave them. Their heart beats because He allows it. They eat food He created. They enjoy nature, music, love, joy, sunsets, chocolate, seasons, family and... then just sneer in God's face and say He isn't good. Well, we don't deserve any of this stuff we enjoy. Does the sun only shine on 'good' Christians? It shines on everybody... even murderers. God is good and His goodness shines on, even when we do reprehensible things and hate Him. He doesn't just turn the sun off... or the air... we still have His goodness all the time every day.

I talked to God about this today. I said, 'Here we are, strutting and boasting about how strong and tough we are and how we have accomplished everything in our lives on our own.' As soon as I said that, a picture instantly popped into my head... one of those 'parable' moments. I saw a child's toy sitting on the floor. It was a battery operated toy zooming all over the place.

God said, "It's like that toy is telling everybody that it is going across the floor by its own power." And I laughed. Uh huh... it's the batteries. It's not going anywhere without power given to it by the batteries.

I hate to break it to this arrogant human race, but... we're the electronic toy. God is the batteries. No batteries. No zoom zoom. That is how good God is. No matter how many times somebody blathers on about how amazing they are, the batteries just keep on pouring the juice into us. We deserve to sit here without the batteries. We don't say thanks. We don't acknowledge He's there. We accuse Him for the rotten stuff that we  humans are doing ourselves. He doesn't just take the batteries away. He still, in His faithfulness and kindness and goodness, keeps us zooming right along.

Thank you, God, for being my batteries. You do realize that after giving me a parable like that, whenever I think of you being my batteries, I won't be able to help myself. I will see you as a fluffy pink bunny...