My birthday has come and gone, so I guess I better get next year’s Christmas present request in. Jewelry is nice; clothes are fine; perfume is okay, but what I really want is a replicator, like the ones they have on board the Starship Enterprise on “Star Trek.”
Perhaps you’re not as well-versed in the world of “Star Trek” as I have become since promising at my wedding that I would hang in there “for better or worse.” Watching countless episodes of “Star Trek” with my husband sometimes feels a little like “for worse,” but it’s certainly a very small sacrifice in the overall scheme of things. But in case you or the person who controls the remote at your house don’t watch “Star Trek,” I will tell you what a replicator is.
A replicator is way cool, that’s what it is. It’s this little vending machine/microwave looking thing on the Starship Enterprise that enables the user to simply declare what he or she desires and poof! it magically appears.
“Hot tea – Earl Grey,” Capt. Picard always says, and hot tea – Earl Grey — is what Capt. Picard always receives — in mere seconds, with no effort on his part whatsoever.
Whole meals are magically concocted by the replicator, as are many, many other things — parts to fix the spaceship, household items, clothes, you name it. You just tell the replicator what you want and it goes to work for you, rearranging molecules and spitting out your heart’s desire. Like an atomic, hassle-free Wal-Mart. No roaming endless aisles, standing in check-out lines, or getting those “I-REALLY-don’t-want-to-be-here” looks from cashiers.
The “Star Trek” writers have undoubtedly hit a common and powerful human nerve with this replicator gizmo – they know that every one of us would desperately love to get everything we want right when we want it.
I guess that’s why it’s so doggone easy for those of us who believe in God to treat Him like a big celestial replicator.
There’s certainly no doubt that God can create anything. He did a pretty amazing job with this world in just six days. And all of His creations are unique, homemade, and personally crafted with great love by His own hands.
Do you doubt that? Then I suggest you visit a zoo. Look at the phenomenal assortment of critters there – handmade by God Himself with amazing colors, textures and quirks. Look at a zebra, a giraffe, a neon fish, a parrot – and at all the other people walking around you – and try to believe it all happened by chance, apart from an imaginative Creator.
I am convinced it takes a great deal more faith to believe that life just randomly happened than it does to believe in the One who made it happen.
I have no doubts about our Creator or His ability to create, but I do have to be careful not to presume upon His creative power and begin treating Him like a heavenly vending machine, a Star Trek replicator of the highest order.
“I’m putting in my quarters, God – faithful praying, Bible reading, church attendance, good deeds, bucks in the offering plate – now, please spit out some blessings. How about good health, financial prosperity, and easy circumstances?”
God does bless obedience, but not presumption. And I’m quite sure He wants to be more than a vending machine in our lives. He loves to bless His children, but He also knows that the biggest blessing of all is simply knowing Him and living in intimate relationship with Him. And there aren’t any quarters that can buy that or any sci-fi gadgets to reproduce it.
Would I rather have a Star Trek replicator or a unique, personal, loving relationship with the Creator of the Universe? No question.
I want God’s heart, not just His hand, for He is so much better than anything He might give me.