“You may worship no other god than me.
“You shall not make yourselves any idols: no images of animals, birds, or fish. You must never bow or worship it in any way; for I, the Lord your God, am very possessive. I will not share your affection with any other god!
“And when I punish people for their sins, the punishment continues upon the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren of those who hate me; but I lavish my love upon thousands of those who love me and obey my commandments. Exodus 20:3-6
I recently came across this article on ancient idols in the Guardian newspaper. Idol is a word we use in our talent finding TV shows. A lot of people want to be the one the crowd loves. They want to be the one up on the stage receiving the adoration.
Recognition is a deep human need. At the same time, we want to give our adoration towards someone or something. Why do we feel the need to give all our love in such a way. And why do we love anyway?
There are people around the world leaving food, money, flowers at the feet of statues. Some might even kiss it's cold stone feet.
An idol is something you give your your love to, diluting your love and sometimes even taking the place of everything else. Normally it's not a family member or a loved one but it could be. Once your whole world revolves around that one thing, it's an idol.
Perhaps you can identify one thing that all your happiness depends on. If so, you may have an idol to deal with. What's the problem with it, if it makes you happy, it can't be that bad? The reality is that nothing in this world lasts. If it doesn't leave you, you will leave it. You will leave empty handed but you don't want to leave empty hearted.
