Vending Machine

The other day at church, as I was walking to the bathroom I noticed the bank of vending machines along the wall. They were where they always were, all looking as they do every week, except for one thing. The snack machine looked normal, filled with treats and chips and other unhealthy bags of goodies ready to be consumed by the next poor sucker hungry enough to put a dollar in. The lights were all on, the glass was clean, and the machine was plugged in and beckoning for someone to come over and taste of its goodness...except for the sign over the payment section and buttons: "Out of Order" in big, black sharpie. If I hadn't been right next to the machine and the sign I wouldn't have thought twice and could have easily walked over in hunger and in my time of need for a Twinkie, only to discover that I had been duped into thinking the snacks were readily available when they truly weren't.
I walked past anyways, but as I walked away I felt like God was teaching me a little lesson through this short encounter, through this seemingly meaningless experience. He started saying this: "David, what if my glory was hidden behind a glass, looking like it was ready for you to reach out and touch, only to be discovered as distant and impossible to reach? What if I teased you by keeping the lights on in my vending machine of salvation, only to put a sign up over the payment area saying 'Out of Order'? How would that feel? You would be helpless to fill your emptiness and needs, your thirst could not be quenched, and your appetite unsatiated. I would be a tease, promising life and eternity, only to withhold it from my hungry creation. Why would I do that?"
He went on to say, "I don't! I tore down the 'Out of Order' sign when I died on the cross as Jesus Christ. I alone was able to break the glass separating you from my salvation. The lights on the machine are on, the glass is broken, and the only payment you need is faith in Christ and Christ alone. His blood is the only legal tender I accept, and he abounds. He is enough to provide the whole world with the salvation I am offering. He is standing at the open vending machine saying 'Come to me, I am the bread of life, the water of the Living God. I am the Savior and I can provide.'"
I thought about all this and it excited me. There's nothing more useless than an out of order vending machine. No one can get to the things inside, which the machine was made to hold. Looking at God's glorious mercy and salvation without reaching out for Christ is just as foolish. God designed His plan the way He did to save us from our sins and foolishness, and to provide lovingly because He desires us. Our God longs for us, His children, and He wants His children to be fed.
I want to reach out and be able to take all the gifts and goodness God has promised us through the life we now have in Christ. I don't want to be on the outside of the out of order vending machine, I want to reach through the glass with Christ and grab whatever I need, and in that way I will use it to bring glory to His name and bring others to the openness of salvation in Christ.

"My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Galations 2:20