In 2009 there was an auction in Los Angeles.
Noting unusual about that you might say…
There is
today an obsession with owning something that once belonged to the rich and
famous. People are prepared to spend thousands of dollars just to own Elvis’s “clapped
out” toaster or Madonna’s burnt out fry pan!
Can you
imagine buying one of John Lennon’s old socks? What would you do with the sock?
Leave it lying casually around the house, hoping someone would notice the old
sock gracing the back of your couch and matter-of-factly inquire, “By the way,
whose sock is this?” Or maybe you’d want to
Can you
imagine being famous enough for people to actually want to buy your old socks?
I have got a draw full of old and mismatched socks…any offers? I hasten to
assure you that no one would want to buy my new socks, never mind my old ones!
I guess
that it would be cool to have a pair of Neil Armstrong’s “moon boot’s” in the
wall unit, or maybe Mike Tyson’s boxing gloves would be a conversation starter,
what about Tiger Woods’ number 5 iron, and Venus Williams tennis racket in the
study would ensure a steady stream of visitors. But someone’s old sock? Even if
it is John Lennon’s!
What is
it that makes people want to be identified with the rich and the famous, the
bold and the beautiful, the young and the restless? What fuels the desire to
want to move from ordinary suburbia to the haunts of the beautiful people? Why
do people appear to have this incessant drive to be lifted from the seemingly
mundane surroundings into the realm of perceived, but transitory glamour, glitz
and grandeur?
I believe
it’s because most people consider that their lives have little meaning, that
they are of little or no benefit to society, and that any contribution that
they make to their community is insignificant, unnoticed. I am sure it is this
thinking that causes people to go, in the words of a song from the 60’s, “like
a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel, never ending or beginning on
a ever spinning wheel, like a ball that keeps revolving, On an ever spinning
wheel, as the images unwind, like the circles that you find in the windmills of
your mind, like the circles that you find in the windmills of your mind.” *
Our God
is the God of the inconsequential! He majors in taking people from the miry
clay and making something out of their lives…. And He doesn’t need the cast
offs from someone who thinks that they are famous. He told Job… “Though thy beginning was small, yet thy
latter end should greatly increase.” Job 8:7
The
Contemporary English Version puts it this way… “Your future will be brighter by far than your past.” Job 8:7
God is the
God of the seemingly meaningless; the God of the insignificant! Witness a God
working through the insignificance of little boy in a floating basket who grows
up to use an insignificant rod to confound the wisdom of the greatest nation on
earth at that time!
Throughout
the Bible we witness the power of God using the insignificant son of Jesse,
with an insignificant shepherd boy’s slingshot to destroy the champion of the
Godless Philistine nation. We read about God utilizing the insignificant 300
warriors of Gideon’s army against the might of the 35, 000 Midianites. An
insignificant jawbone of an insignificant animal -- a donkey -- in the hand of
a young man born to a peasant family becomes a powerful tool of retribution
when consumed by the power and Spirit of God.
He has done mighty deeds with His arm; He has
scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart. He has brought
down rulers from their thrones, and has exalted those who were humble. He has
filled the hungry with good things; and sent away the rich empty-handed. Luke
1:51-53
* From the soundtrack to the movie “The Thomas Crown Affair.”
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