Our good friend Gary joined us as he normally does on the second Tuesday of each month for our free store conversation. He was carrying a brown bag with him that we initially thought contained food but we soon discovered that instead he had brought a toy. Now he told us that it was a toy that his grown kids had left behind when they moved out of the house. But given the fun that he had with it we teased him that he clearly had purchased it for himself.
The toy turned out to be a remote controlled monster pick up truck that Gary proceeded to put on the floor and run around the room. He managed to run over a few toes and bump into a few walls for which he was properly scolded. As he ran it around the room Gary said that the toy went exactly where he directed it and did exactly what he wanted it to. Then he asked us to imagine that he was God and the truck was a human being and to think about how his relationship to it was both like and unlike our relationship with God.
Curtis started things off by saying that whereas the truck was completely under Gary's control that human beings have free choice so we don't have to do what God wants us to. We talked about how God gives us signals and directions but that we are much more complicated than an inanimate toy. Gary said that since the truck was wireless the signals were invisible to us just like our relationship with God.
Someone else said that like the truck we get our power from a source outside of ourselves and if God didn't push the power button we wouldn't go anywhere. We talked a bit about how our world is infused with the life of God and that to mistreat any part of it, including ourselves, animals, and nature, is to disrespect the source of life itself. Linda made us a laugh when she said that our batteries also ran out like the toy truck. Someone else said that we could do a lot more damage to ourselves and others than the toy truck.
Although we weren't sure exactly how it fit in Terrence said that God wants us to prosper but that we shouldn't think of this as only about money and material things. He said that our spirit was just as important as our physical body to which many heads were nodding in agreement.
In concluding our discussion Gary told us a story about a hermit that lived in a cave and said this might not be a lot different than the living situations of some of our friends. The hermit returned to his cave and discovered a thief. He told the man that he only had three things; a small bowl, a thin mat to lay on and he said the thief could take those items but the other thing he could not give the thief. The thief was of course interested in the third thing so the hermit took the man down to the trail to a pond. As it was night the hermit pointed to a round silver disk in the middle of the pond and pointing to it said "that is the thing I cannot give you." The thief realized that the disk was the reflection of the moon. The hermit said that it was a reminder to him that all the good things in the world were a reflection of the love of God and were gifts that could be pointed out but not given away.
We were very encouraged to realize that the most important things in life can neither be bought with our money nor stolen from us. Gary said that was a bit like what was happening at the free store which made us all smile.
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