Reflections on the Mega Machine

As the school holidays commenced recently, one of my churches ran a 3-day Children's Holiday Club.  The title was "Mega Makers", and the aim was to help children discover more about the greatness, depth and power of God's love.  The children took part in all sorts of fun activities during the 3 days, and by all accounts this year's Holiday Club was one of the best ever.  Each time I popped in during the 3 days everyone seemed to be thoroughly enjoying themselves.

The church had been prepared and decorated in preparation for the children to arrive.  The largest item of "furniture" was the wonderful Mega Machine.  The Mega Machine is a very special creation which was designed to make things bigger.  The children found it very convincing, and loved it even when it went wrong and began squirting water at everyone!

There was a slot to input the object which needed to be made bigger.  The object then disappeared into the machine, and eventually came out of another slot greatly increased in size!

As I thought about this wonderful creation, an interesting question occurred to me: If I had access to a machine which could make things bigger, and I had the choice of making one thing bigger in my own life, what would it be?  The possibilities seem endless!  With the Commonwealth games currently in full swing, I suppose that the athletes taking part might opt to have their muscles, endurance or agility etc. made bigger.

Some people, when faced with this question, might elect to choose something which would be of direct personal benefit: a bigger car, house, bank balance, salary etc.  There is something about money and possessions which seems strangely attractive to many people, even though these things rarely provide the kind of lasting satisfaction or happiness which they might initially seem to promise.

Of course, an alternative response to the opportunity to use a Mega Machine could be rather more altruistic.  We could make bigger something which would benefit others rather than ourselves.  For example, one's motivation in making one's bank account bigger might be in order to be able to give more money away to charity, to improve the lives of others.  Or one could perhaps choose to increase the capacity of our love, concern, or compassion for others, or our work skills. For a Christian, the decision might be to deeper one's relationship with Jesus or one's understanding of the Bible, or to increase one's faith. 

I haven't yet finally decided on what I would want to increase, but I do find it a fascinating and challenging question.