Assembly Line

I am not a TV channel watcher.
I would much rather choose a good movie and then turn the TV off.
There have been a few shows in my life that I have really enjoyed.
One that still makes me laugh is the Lucy Show.

Two episodes stand out in my memory.
One where Lucy is making a commercial about a vitamin tonic: Vitameatavegamin.
The other when Lucy and Ethel worked in a candy factory.

I was pondering the candy factory episode the other day.
Ricky wants Lucy to try to work for a week, so she and Ethel get a job in a candy factory.
They have no experience doing factory work, but pretend they do.
Their job is to wrap the pieces of candy as they come down the conveyor belt.

Things are fine until the conveyor belt speeds up.
Lucy and Ethel are unable to wrap the candy, since it is going by too fast.
They do not want to appear inept.
They put the candy in their hats, down their uniform, and in their mouths.

Assembly lines.
Automation.
Everything is about output…numbers…quota.

I just learned recently that the LEGO factory in Denmark is completely automated.
There is no human contact with the little colorful bricks.
No human contact until the bricks come out of the box.

Assembly line.
Funny for Lucy and Ethel.
Efficient for production of LEGO blocks.

What about us?

For You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. (Psalm 139:13,14)

God doesn’t work on an assembly line.
Each one of us is made in HIS image.
Think how beautiful He must be…when you look at the beauty in each of us.

If God doesn’t work on an assembly line, why do we view each other as if He does?

Who is the factory foreman that determines the ideal weight…the perfect proportions?
When did the size of hips, or stomach, or bust have a certain benchmark?

Madison Avenue would have you think that we are all mass produced in a factory.
The molds are made…thank you very much.
Too bad for us if we don’t fit.

God designed women’s bodies to be able to bear children.
Some women choose to hide their femininity under baggy clothes.
They try to camouflage the curves that are supposed to be there.
Some women go to unhealthy lengths to attain the body they think is ideal.

Why are we allowing a factory foreman to shrink-wrap us so that we fit an ideal mold?

God designed men’s bodies to come in all shapes and sizes.
Men are concerned that they won’t have washboard abs for the rest of their life.
They worry that age has taken its toll on the external.

How does God see us?
Can we begin to see ourselves that way, too?

God does not mass produce.
God does not work on an assembly line.
God intricately designs each part…and fashions each of us as HE determines.

Why don’t we cherish our uniqueness?

How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how beautiful! Your eyes behind your veil are doves. Your hair is like a flock of goats descending from Mount Gilead. Your teeth are like a flock of sheep just shorn, coming up from the washing. Each has its twin; not one of them is alone. Your lips are like a scarlet ribbon; your mouth is lovely. Your temples behind your veil are like the halves of a pomegranate. Your neck is like the tower of David, built with elegance; on it hang a thousand shields, all of them shields of warriors. Your breasts are like two fawns, like twin fawns of a gazelle that browse among the lilies. Until the day breaks and the shadows flee, I will go to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of incense. All beautiful you are, my darling; there is no flaw in you. (Song of Songs 4:1-7)

Beautiful love poetry…spoken by a man to his wife.
We do not understand some of this imagery in our culture.
We may even be insulted if some of these things were said to us.
Yet when you look at what he is saying, it is quite lovely.

He is admiring every inch of her.
He is trying to describe the uniqueness of her exquisite beauty the only way he knows how.
She is perfect…to him.
There is no flaw in her…in his eyes.

It matters who finds us beautiful.
The world is subjective and fickle.
The world is unable to describe beauty.

The only TRUE determiner of beauty is the One who created it in the first place.
The Creator put His seal of approval on us.
That should be enough.

The closer we get to Him, the less we care about what the world says.
We are not assembled on a conveyor belt.
We are not put together by automated robots.
We are not mass produced and placed in a mold.

We are CREATED!
Uniquely.
Perfectly.
Made in HIS image.

There is no flaw in you!