A gaggle of ten-year olds followed the harried teacher through the museum. Her hair had started the day perfectly but since then she had been tempted to tear it out, as unruly kids laughed, insulted each other and generally ignored all the strange artifacts of past civilizations that surrounded them.
The teacher prayed that none of her charges would break something that was 3000 years old.
Finally, they came to a display that captured everyone’s attention, at least for a minute, because of its strangeness.
“Now children,” the lady said, “we can learn a lot about people when we look at their gods. Here we have a typical civilization.” The noise subsided even more as they looked at the odd representations before them.
A small black curtain behind the figures made them stand out even more in the light shining on the display.
“This particular nation had four gods. Or really five as we will see.
“This little fellow to the left was the god of money.” As she spoke, from somewhere tiny dollars bills began to rain down upon his head and his hands raised as a big smile plastered itself across his face.
“People who served this god were willing to do anything for him, even spending the vast majority of their time away from family and friends just to earn the rewards this idol gave. Sometimes they even cheated.
“People said he made them contented, but they always seemed to come up just a bit short of happiness, so they served him even more zealously, sure that joy must be there somewhere.”
The kids quietly stared at the little fellow. “How could someone serve something that ugly?” a little girl asked no one in particular.
“Now, this god in the middle,” the teacher continued somewhat uneasily, “is the god of sex.” Several of the boys snickered and elbowed each other. “Quiet down Billy or your mom will be in the principal’s office about you—again!”
The statue looked like a beautiful woman, scantily dressed.
“This particular god promised them all the joy they desired in life, but the problem was: no matter what they did it was never enough. The people became enslaved to it and got involved in weirder and weirder acts, because this little god promised them heaven.
“Its mantra was: ‘I fell in love. What could I do?’ For the worshippers of this god, that was enough. Later they even dispensed with the love part and started acting like hound dogs in heat.
“All they got was slavery.”
The kids looked at each other, not understanding a lot. The teacher moved quickly to the next god.
“Now this god was called, ‘Glory.’ Watch this.”
The teacher called out, “Hit it Jack!”
The lights around dimmed and as a spotlight lit up the “deity” it came alive. He started to sing and dance. Huge clouds of confetti rained down on his head and his eyes shone with joy as smoke billowed around him and colored spotlights illuminated him.
Then suddenly there was a ball in his hand and he dropped back and threw it to an invisible person. Someone somewhere screamed out, “Score!” and the little god ran in a circle then slid on his knees blowing kisses to an invisible crowd.
The kids cackled with joy watching the silly little fellow who was so full of himself.
“Actually these three gods were a visible manifestation of a much bigger god as you will see,” the teacher continued.
With that the black curtain behind the gods fell away and they saw an idol as big as a man. He had a goofy look on his face and there were golden strings that went from the three little gods straight into the heart of the simple fellow.
“Now this is the god of ‘Me-me-me.’ He feels that somehow these smaller gods will give him what he wants. There’s something funny about this religion, though. Normally, you would think that the little gods would sacrifice to the big god. But no. He gives everything he has to the little ones, and they give him just a little of what he wants, then they jerk it away. They make fun of him.
“He’s kind of simple, this god, as you can see from the dopey look on his face.”
The kids all laughed hilariously, because it was true, he did look stupid. And they couldn’t imagine giving everything they had to the three greedy gods.
“This Me-me-me god?” one of the girls asked. “He’s the god of himself, then?”
“That’s about it,” the teacher assented. “He often says he serves the One-True-God, but the way he lives shows who he really loves—him, him, him.”
The teacher moved closer to the display and said, “Watch this though. All these fellows think they are gods; it’s more complicated than that.” She turned towards the gods and said, “Now!”
Suddenly, behind and looming over the Me-me-me god they all saw a giant, shadowy puppeteer. The kids screamed because this thing was horrible and extremely beautiful, attractive and repelling. He manipulated the strings that made Me-me-me move.
“You mean Me-me-me isn’t free? That someone else is controlling him by the strings attached to him?” one of the boys said in shock.
“That’s it,” the teacher says. “He brags about how free he is but he’s got strings that bind him in every way. Pitiful isn’t it? Strange religion.”
“Teacher!” one of the boys asked. “What nations have these silly gods?”
“Why don’t you know?” she said. “These are the gods of …”
Just then a bell rang and the teacher looked at her watch. “Oops! The time got away from me. It’s time to go home. Your mothers are waiting at the door. See you tomorrow.”
With that she hurried them out the door and they became the problem of their moms until the next day.
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“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts.” (Ephesians 2:4, NIV)
Dan. 2:44 “And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.” (NKJV)
Photo:Bobby (Goofy Fix) Flickr, Creative Commons, Some Rights Reserved
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Hum …
The only effective answer to unleashed power of sin is the manifest power of God. @beckyhennesy