I Talk to Machines

1 Kings 19:12: After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.

I don’t know if you’ve heard the song from the musical Paint Your Wagon called “I Talk to the Trees.” There is at least one person, then, who talks to the trees. For a while, some people who cultivated plants talked to them, my mother among them. She said that helped them grow.

I can’t raise any kind of plant, but I do talk to appliances and cars. I think it’s a good idea to stay on good terms with them, so I talk to them and they return the favor.

Take my car, for example. When I push the “open” button on the fob, my Mazda tells me it has received the order and is complying by means of a single blink of the parking lights. It’s as if it’s saying, “Yes!” as it opens the door. Then, when I get out of the car and push the “lock” button, it blinks twice, as if to say, “Good-bye!”

Then, when I don’t fasten my seat belt fast enough, it chimes once and that’s it. I’d call that a gentle reminder, unlike Becky’s Camry which sounds a piercing tone once as a reminder. If you don’t buckle your belt, it moves on to repeated piercing tones and finally to a continuous sound that would draw blood from your ears. At least it gets you to fasten your seat belt or suffer. It works.

I was thinking how God is like the warning system on my car, but instead of chimes, Jesus used a gentle knock. Whether or not we answer is up to us. God loves and respects us so much that God will not continue to hammer at us like the Camry tone, but stops until the next time when he comes with another gentle knock.

I believe that we must be listening for the gentle knock and open the door. And when we do, we will have the opportunity to be closer to God and to grow in God’s grace.

Praise God for God’s gentleness, for continuing to know and for loving us so much God returns until we open the door or not. It’s up to each us, and I pray that we will continue to open the door and let Jesus in.

Amen.