For the customs of the people are worthless;
they cut a tree out of the forest,
and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel.
They adorn it with silver and gold;
they fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter.
Like a scarecrow in a melon patch,
their idols cannot speak;
they must be carried
because they cannot walk.
Jeremiah 10: 3-5
I've been thinking a lot lately about what is man-made versus what is God-made. It's not profound. It may even be a little bit trite or cliche. It is spring time after all -- time to get nature-y, right? I have stopped running from house to car and car to grocery store or church or office, head bent low against the cold wind and started spending real time in the actual out-of-doors. And so I suppose it's natural to suddenly notice the beautiful trees I drive past every day without much of a glance. To stop for a moment and watch the churning water of the rising river and think how grateful I am to live in a place that has water running through it. To revel in the feeling of the warm sun on my back.
But I think two things in particular have me thinking about this more this spring. First, I got a bike. Second, I got an iPhone.
Let's start with the iPhone (even though it's second.) I got it for Christmas from my hubs -- a complete and total surprise. I love it. It makes juggling two kids and two part-time jobs and managing the home front more do-able. I never miss a kodak moment b/c I forgot my camera. I don't double-book myself (quite as often) b/c my calendar is always with me. I do a weeks worth of meal-planning AND grocery-shopping in 30 minutes flat with my favorite meal-planning app. I could go on.
But I gotta tell you, when I read the verses above in Jeremiah, well, first off I laughed. It's kind of funny to picture Jeremiah totally making fun of the other guys' gods. "Your god can't even talk. It's like a freakin' scarecrow in a melon patch! You have to carry it around like a little stump without legs!" But then I got a yucky feeling in the pit of my stomach and immediately I thought of my iPhone. I know. Silly. But still.
Because you see, I also got a bike. Last fall. A really nice, comfortable (old-lady-looking) bike that I love. And since it is (finally) spring, I have been riding Liam to school and riding myself to work at church and just generally trying to spend more time on my bike and less time in my van. And what I have noticed is that normal every day things like going to work become an opportunity for reveling in who God is and how amazingly good He has been to me when I am on my bike. On my bike I am out in God's world, feeling the cool spring breezes, smelling the rich earth and growing things all around me, bombarded with colors and sounds and smells...all of them God-made.
And it makes me realize how much of my life is focused on what is man-made. How much of my day is spent bent over that little iPhone, marveling at man's creation. How much of my money goes to buying (or coveting) trinkets and treasures made by people. How often my mind is completely consumed with managing, organizing, cleaning our man-made stuff.
This isn't a post about consumerism or materialism. It really isn't. I know I've got some stuff to deal with there too. But this is about realizing that nothing man can make -- not even in this era of mystical technological leaps -- can compete with what God has already created. The magnificent oak tree that burst out of a little acorn. The gangly nine-year-old boy that once kicked and turned inside my womb. The quiet rain that falls unbidden from the sky. These are the things that bring glory to my Creator. That turn my attention away from myself and onto God. That cause praise and thanksgiving to rise up and take the place of weariness and complaining on my lips.
No one is like you, O LORD;
You are great,
and your name is mighty in power...
He who is the Portion of Jacob is not like these,
for he is the Maker of all things...
the LORD Almighty is his name.
Jeremiah 10:6, 16
