Imago Dei and Adding Machines

In a recent garage makeover at my parents house we came accross an old adding machine that used to be in my granddad's spare room. Krisy and my mom had it the "destined for landfill" pile. I came outside from studying Latin (I say that to juxtapose two scenes: I was inside reading Latin while my wife and mom were outside in the sweltering heat catergorizing stuff that had not seen the light of day for about a decade. I, in what can only be called a moment pure lunacy, actually complained that they had decided to throw it away. On the plus side, I had an opportunity to exercise a Latin phrase. Mea Culpa.)

After nursing my head wound I rummaged through the pile and fished it out. See below.

Above: A very staged display of all the things I used in the cleaning. (Not pictured: My sweat and blood)

The green section you see began as a veritable swamp of various and sundry things that made me gag. The fact that you can detect a color other than "stank" is a real source of pride for me (and testimonial to the biting power of Windex and Q-tips).

A lifelike re-enactment of what took place some 8 hours earlier. Expressions of gratitude for my "gussied up" appearance can be left in the comments section.

As I sat alone on my parents back porch I was taken back to when this thing was a hot commodity. There is nothing electric to it: all cranks and gears and springs. It speaks of a generation that built things to last and endure even when they are negleted - a day when things were less disposable.

But there was more to it than that. I did not say it at the time, but I was actually moved with a compassion and drive to see this thing be what it should have been. It needed redemption. However, there was nothing about "it" that made me want to spend that amount of time on it. On its own merits, it should have been crushed beneath the thundering tracks of a front-end-loader at the Polk County Landfill. So this act of restoration primarily revealed something about me. I wanted to restore it. I chose it to reveal something about myself.

"But God who was rich in mercy, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ - by Grace you have been saved." God's gracious redemption of His people primarily says something about Him, not us. He is a Redemmer of people who, by their own merits, deserve a thunderous destruction. But He pulled us up. Now He is setting about the meticulous process of fashioning us into what we ought to be. We were created in His image, in His likeness. He knows our fallen frame full well and means to shape us. In this relationship ours in not to claim but to proclaim. I reap the benefits of who He is.

In the future, that adding machine will adorn a room in my house and its presence alone will bellow: "You Redeemed Me!" So shall we evermore shout before His Throne.

Redeemed, how I love to proclaim it,

Tim