The Greatest Show On Earth
The circus was in town last week. A friend had an extra ticket and asked me to go with her family. The show opened as all I remembered from the past with a parade of circus performers and animals. There were probably about fifty people and maybe ten animals. Even though the show was billed as great, it was lacking. There were no lions, no tigers, only one elephant, and the performers had a habit of changing their names with every costume change, and with every never before attempted feat.
The Fantastic Ferneries in blue and red riding a bike on the tight wire were also the Magnificent Moularjes in purple flying on the trapeze. The Amazing Adelia in pink performing with the horses was one and the same as the Great Gavinie decked out in gold and glitter from head to toe. riding the elephant's tusk.
It was just a bit intimidating for the master of ceremonies to lie to the crowd about this performing family, and this one, and this one when they were really the same people. What was even more humiliating was the fact the circus believed we were all hungry and thirsty enough, and dumb enough, to buy six dollar popcorn, eight dollar snow cones, seven dollar cotton candy and five dollar cokes. My friend and I were guilty as charged on the eight dollar snow cone. It did come in a cute nonedible cup, which surprisingly was not lined with gold.
During all this greatness, in the midst of lies and highway robbery, I did get a little something from God. I watched a couple of contortionist twist and bend in ways bodies surely were not designed to twist and bend. I knew God did create them but did He intend for them to use the bodies He gave them for this? As I watched I felt uneasy as if I were watching an attack of satan right before my eyes. Now that may sound a little out there, but it just didn't seem like a God thing to me.
As I watched the trapeze artist, I saw something I had never really noticed before. I saw the importance of the music from the circus band. The performers use the music to know when to pass the trapeze to the performer who is going to jump to it. If they miss a beat they miss the trapeze. Time after time you can see them moving to the rhythm, counting the beats until it is time to jump. At that time, they do appear to fly gracefully and beautifully through the air.
I compared the contortionist and the trapeze artist. Two groups of people used their bodies in completely different ways; one to twist and contort, the other to flow and move gracefully together.
The points I got from the greatest show on earth were these.
Sometime we will be disappointed by men who claim to be great. They are usually lacking.
Sometimes people attempt to deceive us by changing their name and appearance, but if we observe closely, we will see who they really are.
Sometimes when we give into moments of weakness we will be overcharged and robbed.
The product may appear to be beckoning and enticing, but it is not lined with anything that will last.
We have a choice of how we as a Body of Christ use this body. We can twist and contort the truth where it appears to be completely empty of God, or we can learn to work together, move gracefully and beautifully, drawing others
to the beauty of THE GREATEST, Christ Jesus.