Have we Become Lost in the Mall?

My wife and I were imagining an earthly equivalent to the relationship Yahweh has with His children and we came upon the idea of a shopping mall. It is as if our Father loaded us up into the family car and drove us to the mall, with money in our pockets. On the way, He reminded us again about the rules. We were to stay together, avoid talking to strangers, go into only "Dad-Approved" stores and be on the lookout for Him to come get us when it was time to go home. He had even given us a written copy of the rules to take with us, a protective suit and a cell phone to call Him if we got into trouble.

That is a very loose analogy of what Yahweh had done when He brought the Israelites out of Egypt. Unfortunately, it wasn't long before the kids started to ignore the rules. Tempted by what their eyes saw, many wandered away from their brothers and sisters, into stores of questionable nature. Some took off the protective suit provided by their father to put on the latest sweater showcased under carefully placed spotlights in the store window. Some left their rule books in the food court and almost all, got so caught up in the sights and sounds that they became unconcerned with when their Father would return to take them home.

How often are we like that? Why do we let the world's shallow and deceptive messages draw us away from what is real, fulfilling and eternal? The peace that comes from an intimate walk with the Maker of the Universe cannot be matched by Madison Avenue or Hollywood. A new suit is no replacement for the cloak of zeal or the robe of righteousness. The latest pop song cannot feed our spirit the way a few lines of "Amazing Grace" can. An hour of prayer will do much more for us than an hour of "Dancing with the Stars".

Let us listen to Dad and walk every day remembering that all around us is a fake world designed by the father of lies as a tool to draw us away from all that our loving Father wants to give us. If we keep our focus and keep watching for His return then we will be invited into the splendour behind gates of pearl, with streets of gold, day without night, banquets, spotless robes and eternal love. 

Shalom