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What Planet Did You Come From?

Pulling into the parking spot at our favorite Chinese restaurant, we were taken aback by our son's sudden incredulous exclamation. We had been there many times. It was all so familiar to us. But our young son who was becoming an excellent reader had noticed the signs for the first time. There in front of our parked car was a sign that read, "Parking for Human Customers Only."

Well, at least that's what he thought it said. Neighboring businesses were conscious of the limited parking available and had taken steps to ensure that their own customers were not inconvenienced by someone else's. Hunan looked an awful lot like human to a speed-reading 1st grader.

Personally I've wondered at times if there are any normal people out there. Wouldn't it be nice if our church parking lot was filled with cars delivering perfect families to our front doors every Sunday. Maybe we should reserve our parking spaces for regular, ordinary, normal people only. Wouldn't life be so much easier for Pastor's and church leaders. Finding qualified staff members and volunteers who can get along with people and don't carry loads of excess baggage, would be so much easier. There would be waiting lists for jobs like mowing the lawn, cleaning the church and teaching a Sunday School class. The little conversations with God that we sometimes have before we answer the phone would end. You know, the ones where we say, "Oh Lord, what now?".

Herein lies the problem. We're all human customers! That's why we need God. Job once complained that the people in his own house "look upon me as an alien" (19:15). Perhaps we are the strangest of all God's creatures, yet we are the only ones he died for.

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