These words from my 6 year-old sent a nostalgic shiver down my spine.
I can recall plundering my father's workshop for tools when I was a child. A lot of
-structive happened on those days, but mostly the de- kind, not the con-.
So, with trembling voice and a great effort to stifle my imagination, I replied, "What for?"
His answer brought no comfort.
"I want to take something apart."
Some investigating revealed that the object of his disassembling scheme was his brother's coin bank. I advised against that plan of action, but not wanting to squash this venerable proclivity towards reverse engineering, I offered an olive branch - a consolation prize for his temerity. And it was a winner. We have (had) a 2-screen DVD player for the van we bought second hand and cheap. It quit working a year ago. So I gave my sons the entire system and a set of screwdrivers; I laid it all out on a table in their bedroom, said, "fix this", then closed the door and walked away.
It took them the better part of two days, but they utterly destroyed every piece of the two screens and DVD player. I walked into the room yesterday to find circuit boards and wires and diodes and LEDs scattered like casualties of some sci-fi techni-battle on planet Matrix.
It was beautiful.
The destruction complete, they abandoned the ruins and moved on to more enticing past times, watching SpongeBob, I think.
"Hey", I shouted, "get in here and put this back together!"
Mustering every ounce of six year old apathy at his disposal, my son, without taking his eyes off the tv, offered, "Dad, we wouldn't even know where to start."
He speaks for us all.
We are so good at taking things apart:
Other people's flaws, mistakes and poor choices.
The church's impotence, mismanagement and ineptitude.
Even our own failures, misplaced hopes and misguided plans.
We can take a stab at analyzing and diagnosing myriad problems with great supporting arguments and opinions.
We can point to the broken places and announce our breakthrough discoveries: "Look, you're broken!" "The church is broken!" "I am broken!"
But when it comes to putting any of this back together and letting the church and people do and be what God created them to do and be, we're 6 year-olds mucking about with Dad's tools, hopelessly in over our heads.
Thank God for God. He takes our mess and makes beautiful things.
"Behold, I am making all things new!"
Now if only I could get Him to work on the DVD player...
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