TOYS, BIG BOOKS AND NESTING DOLLS

Colossians 3:1-4 – Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Marketing the “Biggest Big Book Ever,” this popular toy store sells entertainment to children of all ages. Whether it’s the latest dual-screen game cartridge or the strangely-alarming, mind-reading head band (I am not joking about this one), today’s toys are worth their weight in fools’ gold. I have no problem with a toy’s entertainment value, but when one’s imagination is replaced with a power charger and batteries, I have to ask the question, “What message is being taught to our children?”

In my mother’s day (notice I refuse to date myself), all a child needed was a ball, a stick and a few neighborhood buddies. Get them outside and you had the makings of a sandlot team. Dolls and tea sets turned little girls into Suzy Homemakers…oops, responsible caregivers. Trucks and blocks sent boys on journeys uncharted. Yesterday’s toys were no substitute for the creative and inquisitive. They only lent a minor hand to the art of a child’s imagination.

A toy stretching the imagination is one thing, but if it has a built-in teachable component, I am all over it like a pit bull to a pork chop! Take the Matryoshka nesting dolls. Stacked one within another, these oval-shaped, wooden dolls became popular outside their native Russia. The concept is as simple as the design – open its crown and reveal its hidden treasure. Paul reminded the Colossians that they could set their hearts and minds on things above because their lives were “hidden with Christ in God.”

Open the Word of God and you find that earthly things expose our hearts and minds to all manner of maladies. We worry over bills. We fret over our children. We agonize over the next drama in life. As we hide our hearts and minds with Christ, we aren’t left alone in our struggles nor with the sole purpose of figuring out what’s next. He sits with the Father. We are with Him and He lives within us. His Word reveals purpose, direction, hope, a future. And as we study His Word, He reveals His truth.

Such a revelation uncovers another precious truth – hidden in Christ, we are less likely to entertain or eventually succumb to earthly notions and worldly mindsets. Much like Paul’s warnings to the Colossian church, Christ is the only one with whom we can place our trust and in whom that trust originates. The world may offer its options to true enlightenment; in Christ, He is THE way, THE truth and THE light. The world will make empty promises; in Christ, all His “promises have been thoroughly tested” (Psalm 119:140) and “no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ” (2 Corinthians 1:20).

Today’s toys are designed for entertainment value, but there’s a lot to be said for the toys of yesteryear. And much like the nesting dolls, God’s Word challenges our imaginations and arrests our spirits with its valuable lessons. The “Biggest Big Book Ever” may get published once a year, but God’s “Biggest Big Book” goes on forever in the hearts of His children!