In this space, in the past, I know I have more than once harangued about the ills, etc. of computer technology and its ‘advances’, but this, today, is a rare gift for all you techie aficionados. I concede that some features found in our hi-tech world are, well, convenient – and appreciated. When I want to adjust the volume on something I’m listening to on my computer, there’s a slide bar that quickly and simply regulates the sound. Ditto for background light: a quick foray into ‘settings’ and Presto! There is light! Ditto again the Zoom feature for enlarging text (more and more appreciated with the passing years) or decreasing the size of a document to be sure my inner OCD editor is satisfied with the overall layout. And I so love the mute key! (sorry to all the producers of the millions of never-heard ads).

While so much of our lives are now digital (digitized?) human beings are perennially analog machines. Change comes oh so gradually, over time. Growth happens with maddening, snail-like slowness for the first eighteen years of life and then gets steadily more fast-paced in inverse proportion to our ability to keep up. Have you ever heard a fifteen-year-old saying something like, “Time is going by so fast!”? On the other hand, have you ever heard a golden-ager saying something like, “Time seems like it’s standing still!”? It isn’t a pre-teen who coined  the phrase: The hurrier I go the behinder I get. Nor are they the ones who immediately relate to it! (I am sometimes still able to go fast enough that I get to my destination having outpaced my reason for being there.)

One colossal change that occurs in the life of every new follower of Jesus is the source, quality and quantity of love which is now theirs. If we were made of digital components, that love would simply be the activation of a microscopic bit of plastic whozit hot-glued to our motherboard. But no! We read Scripture extolling the Love of God, His love for us personally, His acceptance of us because of Jesus, but no synapse fires once and for all, ushering us into a lived experience where we never again question whether or not we are loved. Our analog-ous(?) beings are not robotic or automatic or just a program made up of a series of 1’s and 0’s. We are relational, and in that, needy, even fragile – and forgetful. The great news is, as our Master Designer, God knows that and has made excellent provision, placing us in a nuclear family and as surplus, a spiritual family. With all the glitches in our analog styles of relating, the Holy Spirit is forever pointing us back to the Father, to Jesus, by way, most often, of the Body of Christ to which we belong and in which we keep finding our belonging. So grateful for all of you constant and precious reminders, to me, of the love of the Father. Thank you!  PD

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