Out of Place

Yesterday Wade and I went for lunch to a local sandwich shop and I found this billiard ball lying all alone in the parking lot. No one was around and its owner had long since gone so I picked it up as it was a cool thing to find in a strange place. I thought one of my kids would like it. As I drove to do some things I began to think about the ball and these thoughts came to my mind. I couldn’t tell if it was a 6 or a 9 ball because it was separate from the others and depending on the way it was held, it could have been either. Then it struck me that it really did have much use apart from the rest of the set, and without a pool table it really was more dangerous than fun. Those things are heavy and hard and I began to have second thoughts about giving it to one of my kids. I began to relate that billiard ball to people who are all alone and not part of a set of others they belong to or in an environment where they make sense. If we aren’t a part of a set then we really don’t know who we are, a 6 or a 9 ball. God’s idea of family and church began to make so much more sense to me. It’s because I’m part of a family and a church that I know who I am and what my part is to be. God wants that for every stray billiard ball out there.