Paying a High Price for Quality

Our Boxing Day travels today took us to two extremes.

At one extreme, there was the Amish Furniture Outlet.  The store was easily navigated. Every piece was beautiful, solid oak, maple or cherry, and hand-crafted. There were no screws or nails to be seen, but perfect fits including dovetail joints holding the pieces together. But, with list prices reaching $15,000 for an exquisite bedroom set, buyers in a tough economy were apparently too few, pushing them into bankruptcy.

At the other extreme is a big box furniture chain. Every piece looks good, but with solid veneer on pressboard, fibreboard or particleboard, there's nary solid wood to be found in most items. However, the price is right, and the quality good enough, at least for a short while. Besides, who needs dovetail joints when you have bolts and flanges. For the price of one kitchen chair from the Amish, one can purchase and assemble a full kitchen set with a table and four chairs. Business is booming, so they must be doing something right!

Life often requires us to choose between quality and cost. I certainly would love the hand-crafted solid wood pieces, they are spectacular pieces of furniture! More often than not, they are well beyond my budget and I have to settle for the engineered wood with veneer. 

There are often other choices between quality and cost as well, not just when we shop. Think of  choices around diet and exercise, especially at this time of year, or relationships, personal development or so many other aspects of life.

Luke 2:11-12 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.

Christmas reminds us that God did not sacrifice quality or cost when it comes to His love for mankind. He didn't hold anything back in terms of quality or cost, wrapping Himself in human form to come to earth as a little baby in a manger... feedtray for animals! 

John 14:6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 

Mark 10:45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. 

Jesus came to show us how to live and love, and to give us the way back to the Father.

John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

2 Corinthians 3:18 And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Jesus came to pay the ultimate price that we would have life in abundance. And investing His Spirit in us, He works to transform us from a particleboard core into the high quality, "solid wood" people God originally designed us to be!

Life Lessons from a Guinea Pig

Ginger has been my home office roommate for the last couple of years. She was actually Sandra's Guinea Pig, but we adopted each other when Sandra went to Laurentian University last year.

Ginger had quite the personality - she learned the sounds that preceded food, and squeaked when she heard them... sounds like the vegetable drawer in the fridge being pulled out, or Silvia's feet hitting the floor in the morning. She would squeak and popcorn when excited, even if I was on a conference call - "what is that squeaking noise?".  Rodent, as she was affectionately called, knew the daily routine. If we forgot to give her the morning/evening yogurt treats, carrot, cucumber slice or Timothy Hay, Ginger would remind us by squeaking loudly and chewing on her cage until we gave her what was due.
 

Just shy of five years old, Ginger hadn't been herself for a few weeks, starting to forget her routines and losing interest in her treats.  Yesterday morning, she was no longer able to stand on her own. So, she spent the last 90 minutes of her life snuggled against my chest on my arm as she continued to lose strength. Her breathing became more laboured, until she was fighting for each breath... and after a few final desperate gasps for air, she stopped breathing and went limp. Ginger was gone. 


I wept.

Weep over a Guinea Pig? Yes indeed! I am a softy after all, even choking up in public when saying thanks to Phil and Marisa during their farewell a few weeks back.  Well, as I experienced Ginger's fight to stay alive, my mind went back into the hospital room some years ago when Silvia's mother was doing the same, shaking and shuddering trying to breathe... and I experienced all the emotions of that day all over again. All because of this little guinea pig.

During that last ninety minute struggle for life, I couldn't do much but try to make her as comfortable as possible, and reflect.

Crying over a guinea pig seems absurd. But is is as absurd as Almighty God, Creator of the universe, caring for me?

Psalm 8:3-4 I look up at your macro-skies, dark and enormous,
      your handmade sky-jewelry,
   Moon and stars mounted in their settings.
      Then I look at my micro-self and wonder,
   Why do you bother with us?
      Why take a second look our way?

Yet, God does bother with us. This Christmas season reminds us that He cared for us so much that He became like one of us, with a plan to give his life for us.


John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Ginger was most secure in her cage. She did like it when we took her out of the cage and put her on the floor to explore the room. When she felt threatened by any sudden movements, she would make a dash back to the cage. She wanted to go back to her little secure world.

Romans 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Am I any different? When God takes me out of my comfort zone to stretch me to realize the potential He has created in me, don't I tend to also run back to the security of my comfort zone?


It was only in recent months as we'd spend hours together almost every day in the same room that Ginger was no longer afraid of me. In fact, she started welcoming me into the room with her little squeaks, and follow me expectantly as I walked by her cage. I had become her friend.


Romans 12:2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

It is as I welcome God into my life by spend daily time with God in His Word, listening intently for what He has to say to me, that I begin to understand God's love for me, that I become His friend... no longer in fear, but in true relationship. And then He does His work to transform me to be more like Christ.

In her last minutes as she was fighting for each breath, Ginger looked at me with pleading eyes: "help me".  But I couldn't do anything for her, except hold her.

  
Luke 1:37 For nothing is impossible with God.

There are more Ginger stories. She now rests wrapped up in a cloth diaper in a gingerbread cookie tin. My office is quieter, emptier and colder this morning.

Keeping the Right Perspective

Jonah 4:1-4

Once he got his act together inside the fish, Jonah gives his best at communicating the message of impending doom to the city of Jonah. With his readily apparent anger issues, Jonah was likely a very good prophet of gloom, delivering the message of imminent destruction very passionately with raw emotion. Indeed, his effectiveness as the messenger is confirmed by the fact the people heard and applied his message, repenting of the sins he was pointing out to them.

But, it is clear in these verses that Jonah really didn’t care about the people, or their fate without reconciliation to God. Instead, Jonah is angry that God didn’t destroy the people as he had proclaimed. He is angry that they took the message to heart, and turned their lives around, back to God. He is angry that God's grace prevailed. How could he show grace and favour to such vile, evil people? They deserved to be punished! God, that's what You said You would do - how can You go back on Your word?

Yet, Jonah experienced God's grace himself. The whole fish episode is the most recent example. He had seen God's grace in action before, recounting that to God as his reason for running away in the first place. How could he not want that same grace extended to the Assyrians?  Could it be because of their history of war against the people of Israel?


Two aspects of relevance for me to apply today:

• There are a lot of vile people in our world. Do I seek God's punishment for their evilness, or His grace to restore them to relationship with Him? Do I want God to "get even" with them for me, or transform them?
• Jonah got so lost in and focused on the task. That can easily happen to us as well, even if we are in the "grace" business! We can often focus on the task aspects of what we’re doing, and miss the people side. The pressure of budgets, deadlines, agendas can easily take our eyes off the people who we work with, and for.

God, please remind me daily of your grace for me. Give me your eyes and heart of compassion so that I can see those around me the way you see them, and keep my priorities straight.