Our predicament places us precariously out on the edge of a cliff,
surrounded by deep canyons, where we can fall a great distance if we make the
wrong choices. However, we wouldn’t be alive and conscious filled with our
Maker’s breath, if we had been completely pre-programmed. We would be nothing
more than mindless robotrons filled with miles of algorithms and pre-planned
response.
In the story of Pinocchio, the puppet wanted more; he wanted
to be a real boy. When he gets his wish, being able to walk in the world of
real men, he quickly discovers how much trouble is waiting for him around every
corner. In some interpretations, after escaping many dangerous pit falls, he
returns to Geppetto and chooses to live the life he was designed for. However,
in the original story, which was a tragedy published in 1881, Pinocchio actually
gets hanged by his enemies the fox and the cat. It’s always the foxes and the
cats of this world!
Just like Geppetto’s wooden puppet we too have been created
to walk in a world of choices. We were designed by our Creator to live in
peace, with freewill to choose to love others in our community. However, so
many of us choose self destructive paths that lead ultimately to death and
destruction.
We were designed with
a purpose and to live in a way that brings glory to our Maker. But because we
have freewill we often chose the wrong path. Our Creator loves us and desires
us to live in a way that we can thrive and bring glory to Him and His coming
kingdom.
It’s bizarre how the choices we make have a way of catching
up with us when we least expect it. When I was in high school I didn’t apply
myself. English became my worst class which I often took the liberty to skip. I
found out later in life that my English teacher would read my assignments to
the class when I was absent. Not as examples of what to do but as scathing
examples of what to avoid (hopefully my editor won’t read this part).
It was during one of those missed classes that I neglected
to read a book on our reading list; D.J. Salinger’s “The catcher in the rye”.
That book might have turned my life around sooner. Holden, the main character
in the story, had an idea from a poem he had read of children who were running
through a field of rye that were in constant danger of running off the edge of
a nearby cliff. Holden, desiring to save them, wanted to stand at the precipice
and catch the children from falling over the edge.
It’s always been our ability to make choices coupled with the
enormous amount of freedom we have here in America that has sent a large part
of our society over the edge. Is there a way to live life in order to avoid
pitfalls that can hold us permanently shackled to our trouble?
One option might be to stay in the craftsman’s workshop
separated from the world and temptations that land us in trouble. Another
option might be to allow our Creator to guide us through this world and safely
into the next. The last option is to run
on our own carelessly through a field of rye.
As a parent I’m always amazed, really mystified, at how our
Creator designed our children to be so unique; individuals with their own
personal style, qualities and characteristics. Our children possess traits of
ours yet grow up so different from us. Children running free at full speed
through a field of rye always in arm’s reach of that cliff that will change their
lives forever. As parents we desperately need to stand forever still in the
rye, near the edge of the cliff waiting for a chance to catch them before they
fall.
Our Creator too is standing in the rye, near the cliff
waiting for us to fall. He patiently waits for us to call out to Him, to invite
Him into our own lives to walk with us around, sometimes through, many dangers
toils and snares. He desires that we make a freewill choice to return to His
workshop where He can finally finish His masterpiece into what He originally
designed us to be.
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