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The Kingdom and the Garage

Growing up, it was a rare Sunday morning that I wasn’t in church. Grandma and Grandpa made sure of it. I remember vividly Grandpa’s enormous blue diesel Buick rattling its way up the driveway ready to collect my sister and I in time for Sunday school. It’s funny; people say Buick diesels were unreliable. But that one never missed a Sunday. I suspect that its dependability on Sundays was solely due to all of the time Dad spent under its hood on Saturdays.

If the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, could it also be like a garage?

We depend on our cars. Without them, our way of life would grind to a halt. And yet, most of us don’t give the people who work on our cars a second thought. Something breaks, makes noise or lights up and we take it in to the garage. We leave the key with someone, come back to get it when they say it’s done and pay the bill. Then we’re back on our way.

But behind closed garage doors, it takes considerable skill and care to complete even some of the most basic repairs. Technicians use an array of tools ranging from common hand tools to complicated emissions sensors and computerized diagnostic scanners. Troubleshooting is often the hardest part of a job, and sometimes it is as much an art as a science. And once the repair has been made, all components have to be properly reassembled and carefully checked to ensure that the vehicle is once again roadworthy and safe.

If Martin Luther was right when he said, “God is milking the cows through the vocation of the milkmaid,” then God is keeping his people mobilized to do the good work he has given them through the vocation of the mechanic. Thank you to all of the folks who turn wrenches and bang knuckles to keep us on the road. Yours truly is good work.

Image courtesy of infocog. Sourced via Flickr Creative Commons