LUKY
"HAD enough? Try Jesus."
That's what the sticker of the back of a certain caravan laconically advises.
Every time I see it, it gets my back up.
It's not only that I feel the sticker is lacking in respect, offering Jesus as a pick-me-up after a bout of less than worthy doing. It's because I think that Jesus our Saviour, Christ the King and Son of God, is worthy of a little - no, a lot - more decorum and respect that displayed on that little sign.
Besides, I am irritated by the cool assumption that every passerby is the sort of harum-scarum who never gives a thought to God.
Different view
I was discussing that offending sign with a friend, and she took me severely to task.
"You're wrong about that caravan owner", she said. "The way I see it, he is terribly sorry for those people who don't really know about Jesus. Seeing that slogan may just bring them back to religion.
"That man is not being smug, he's being sincere. I'm not fit to hold a candle to him. Catch me putting a sticker like that on my car window!"
I'm with her on that. All you ever saw on my car windows, besides my third party and licence discs were the imprint of sticky fingers.
Becomes natural
Love of God, especially as one grows older, tends to become as natural as eating and drinking.
When you're young, possessions play a great part in your outlook. So do human respect, popularity, status and good looks.
Growing older, you seem to grow away from people and become closer to God. All these possessions and achievements bring so little real joy and satisfaction.
Some people go on all their lives, blindly searching for power and wealth, but most of us tend to call it a day at some stage.
Best attitude
God uses many ploys to bring us to our knees, which is the only attitude in which we'll ever achieve true happiness.
I think He divines our shortcomings and guides us a little here on earth in accordance with those failings, in order to bring us back to Him so that we can be happy with Him forever in the next world.
We suffer illness, pain, the loss of a loved one, poverty, humiliation, loneliness - and in the end we put up our hands and say: "All right Lord. You win."
I don't think that nonchalant sticker will bring one single solitary sinner back to Jesus. What will bring us back, I believe, is the pain life brings us.
We are tried as iron in the fire by pain and sorrow, and by the time we're freed from all stains, Jesus will find a place for us in one of the many mansions in His Father's house.
Catherine Nicolette
Jesus stickers. I love them. Whenever my car is idling behind another vehicle at the red robot, I am thrilled to see a 'Jesus saves' sticker. Or a stylish fish on the back window of the car in front of me.
Another sticker recently advised, "Need a friend? Talk to Jesus". I was fully in agreement with that one.
Honk for Jesus
The best sticker I ever saw was "If you're a believer, honk for Jesus". A cacaphony of approving car horns broke out as we all waited for the light to change.
One car declined to follow suit, and the owner leaned halfway out the window to hurl abuse impartially directed between the car sticker owner and ourselves.
As the green light glowed, the woman in the offending car made her getaway as the other car trailed behind, the owner still hurling expletives.
One-liner
The rest of us exchanged benign nods and smiles as we placed our cars in first gear.
The Jesus sticker had done its job well - pithily preaching the Gospel in public one-liner.
As I slowly moved through the traffic over the bridge, a sudden thought struck me; it was just as well Mom wasn't in the car as I tooted for Jesus . . .
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