A man named Ron Dubren walks up to a yard sale and starts looking around for what "treasures" he can find. He goes through the toys first, then the electronics, looks at the movies, considers the lawn equipment and meets his wife over at the clothes section to see what she's picked out for him. As his wife continues to barter, he wonders over to see what there little boy is looking at. Of course, the toys. He picks up one toy at a time, tries to figure out what it is, then determines if he should put it in the box next to it or his little pile he wishes to take home. He stops and gets confused by one red bear. It's a red stuffed animal looking bear. It had a child-friendly face with big eyes and a button nose, although one eye is now missing. The fur is a little dirty but that's not what catches his eye. The child has noticed that the bear has a hard place in it's right paw. From his other toy playing experience, he knows it's a clicker, something that will make the bear do something, but what will it do? He clicks and clicks. Squeezes. Presses the buttoned hand. He shakes it a bit. Even tries to open up the back panel to see if there are batteries in it for this toy to come to life. Nothing. So he tosses it to the next box and begins to reach for the next one. He catches his father's guiding view beside him and grabs the red bear back. "Dad, what is this? It won't work. What's this supposed to do? Help it wake up."
It's interesting how when I was a kid (now I feel old saying that), a bear was just a bear and it was doing exactly what it was supposed to do. Be a bear and it was up to you to make it come alive. But the point of the story is that the boy knew that there was something else to it. If the hands and belly would have been plush, he would have known it was just a bear and that would have been enough. But he noticed something about the bear that wasn't normal and knew it had to do something else.
You can know what something is based upon what it originally did. This little boy knows that something is different about this red bear because there are pieces in it that don't make sense - just being there. So he begins to try to figure it out. Why does it have these pieces? What do they do? What does it do?
What I love about the little boy is that he's curious and he doesn't just pass things over as broken. He thinks and thinks and tries things out that he knows. Then he takes it to his dad and asks Him, "what's this supposed to do?" He knows it's something good. He knows it's something fun. He wants to enjoy it and he knows his dad will know.
The boy's daddy, Ron Dubren, is a toy inventor. He's created or been a part of creating numerous board games for the last 20 years, and other inventions like the Looney Tunes PEZ dispensers, and of course, everyone's favorite red bear that laughs when you squeeze his hand - Tickle Me Elmo.
Perhaps you can already see where I'm going with this. "I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, everyone one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you." - Ps 139:14-18.
Man, I know I'm different. I know that I have things in me that need to come alive. I have boxes in my hands, feelings in my heart, natural desires for certain areas of life. I know there's something there. I know it's good. I know it's fun. I know it's for a purpose...but I have no idea what to do with it yet. I'm learning, but I'm also finding out more and more that a toy maker delights in the toy. He enjoys the toy. Yes, it's for a purpose, but he just straight up enjoys it. No inventor makes a creation for himself he doesn't enjoy. He created us awesome. We may be or have been that messed up red bear at the yard sale, but he can take us home, give us new fur, a new set of eyes, and put new energy in us to make us come alive. God was in a good mood during creation and delighted in us. Through Song of Solomon we have this repetitive idea of "delighting." Through out the NT we see Jesus restoring things back to their original intent: blind eyes restored to work like they should, lame legs restored to work as they should, people restored into relationship as they should be, Paul's zeal restored to be used as it should be, the disciples fisherman based heart restored as to what it should be, marriages restored to what they were supposed to be, men returned to their real masculine role, women returned to their real feminine role,(don't take that bad, it's a good thing), soldiers learning restored and learning to re-aim their warfare, philosophers restored and learning how to use their brilliant minds accordingly, it's stories of hundreds and thousands of people being restored and using the way they were naturally wired, now re-calibrated back to the original settings to glorify God. "God is most glorified in us, when we are most satisfied in Him." - John Piper. We were made to be enjoy God, be enjoyed by God, and do what He created us to do naturally.
Now we get to be that little boy and go, "Dad. What is this? What's it supposed to do? Help it wake up." Then, be enjoyed by God for simply just being. Where we don't have to try to do something, we just do what we were created to do - be with Him, respond how we're wired, and laugh when he tickles us.
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