Today, in prayer, I had a vision of bumper cars – those wacky, bulbous, semi-steerable, non-brakable carnival ride creations which, just as their name suggests, are meant to bump – on purpose – everything possible, including the outside wall of the ride but especially friends who, in their own bumper cars, are on a mostly-friendly collision course with us, with our car. The goal, of course, is to bump as many times and things as possible, while laughing hysterically, before the timer dings and your car dies in traffic, to, alas, bump no more. Nobody minds if they don’t complete the ‘circuit.’ I mean, who cares? It was all about the much-anticipated bumping into. At this point, you’re probably thinking I should have been more piously engaged in my prayer time and not distractedly waddling off in search of circus entertainment. In an attempt to redeem myself, let me explain. I felt like God was showing me how surrounded we all are on this trek to his heart. Surrounded by His love, that is. I think we’d all be willing to admit that living as Kingdom Ambassadors has its share of challenges as well as mountaintop experiences (the former are often far more plentiful than we’d prefer). So back to the bumper cars. It’s like everything we bump into, every time, is slathered with his love. People, circumstances, losses, gains, joys, sorrows, frustrations, they are all smeared with a protective layer of God’s loving provision. He knows it takes a huge number of times bumping into his love to grow us up, to get us to knock off our simpleton behaviors, to finally acquire maturity in him (not to fear, bumper cars will still be admissible). See y’all tomorrow at 10 AM.
Bumper Car Love
