It was an accident, I suppose. I doubt the young man was targeting the car, although it would have been hard to blame him.

We were headed to a doctor's appointment for Marsha. So, as I reported before, I was driving her car. I really don't like the car, but when I am transporting her, I have to drive it. Traffic was pretty heavy, but not abnormally so.  It had snowed the night before, but it was around noon and the roads were no worse than with a summer rain.

We were stopped in a turning lane, waiting for the light. Just sitting there, waiting. Suddenly there was a loud BANG and the car was pushed forward. I glanced in my rearview mirror and saw the front grill of a large Ford pick-up filling up the rear window. Marsha, being Marsha, immediately yelled, "What did you do?" I said we were hit. Once she said she was OK, I got out of the car. The driver of the truck was already out of the truck and was checking the damage. When he saw me he asked if we were OK. I replied we were, and I asked about the people in his truck. Everyone was fine.

I had a sinking feeling as I got to the back of Marsha's car. I mean, the truck was huge. When I looked down the road was covered in black plastic pieces. The other driver was stunned.

Every piece of plastic was from the truck. On Marsha's car, there was not a mark. Not a scratch, not a dent and not a scrape in the paint. No cracks in the taillights, no damage whatsoever. His grill was bent, the facia was shattered and the man looked like he was seeing something horrible for the very first time. The wife was climbing out of the truck in a panic. First thing she said was 'the baby is OK.' The next thing she said was 'where did all this plastic come from?' She was looking at Marsha's car expecting to see huge damage. Instead, it was like it had just come off the showroom floor. She looked at the front of the truck, saw the damage, looked at her husband and said, "What...?" Then she started picking up plastic. 

"I can't believe it!" the husband said. "Your car should be smashed! How does this happen?" There is something in me that sometimes just comes out. It is called sarcasm. "Well, you know, the commercials proudly say 'assembled in America.' But the parts come from everywhere. Now this car, my young friend, is totally built and assembled in the good old Republic of Korea." He looked like he could scream. I figured he had just smashed his truck, there was a baby inside and his wife, for some reason, was picking up all the plastic. I tossed him a bone. "No damage to us. No need to call the police unless you want." That cleared his face. "Yeah, yeah, no police." I took his information, and we parted ways.

Maybe it was a God thing. The hand of God protecting the back of Marsha's car. But I think it is more because the fact that while American trucks are getting bigger and bigger, they are also using more and more plastic. In Ohio, any vehicle in a funeral procession has to have a flag fixed to the roof of the vehicle. They say FUNERAL and they attach with a strong magnet. You cannot put a flag on top of the newer trucks because there is so much plastic in the vehicle. They call it a 'composite,' but most of the composite is plastic. As we go along it seems everything is built much more cheaply and, yet, cost so much more.

We see that more and more in Christianity, as well. Bible studies on video have all manner of changing scenes. Pictures to highlight the point, scenes that fade in and out, the Gospel delivered on an attractive plate complete with someone to spoon feed you. Devotions, sermons, studies. Many canned. A growing trend in Christianity is the mega church that has mission churches, and those churches often times air the sermon that is being preached at the main church. No one actually preaches at the individual churches. 

We can't control what goes into our vehicles, but we can control what goes into our Spiritual gas tanks. Don't sell yourself short. Do your own reading, your own investigation. If you read and study while being led by the Spirit, you get more than what you get by being spoon fed. 

You good folks have a great week.