God's Glasses

I came across an article this morning that was very moving. It started by referencing the following story in the scriptures and asked, What did Christ draw in the sand?

The author said:
"We’ll never know what he wrote, but I have an idea…

In a temple in Thailand’s ancient capital, Sukotai, there once stood an ancient clay statue of the Buddha, almost ten feet tall. It had been cared for over a period of five hundred years, though no one knew where it had come from or who had created it.

It had endured violent storms, turbulent changes of government, and invading armies. It was weathered and cracked, but still standing.

The monks caring for the statue worried that the cracks were getting too wide. It needed to be repaired.

One day a curious monk shone a flashlight into the largest crack and was astonished to see a gleam inside.

The clay shell was chipped away to reveal one of the largest, most beautiful, and most valuable golden statues of the Buddha ever created. Today, the statue is estimated to be worth $250 million.

It was believed that the gold had been covered in plaster and clay to protect it during times of conflict and unrest.

“In much the same way,” says mindfulness teacher Jack Kornfield, “each of us has encountered threatening situations that lead us to cover our innate nobility. Just as the people of Sukotai had forgotten about the golden Buddha, we too have forgotten our essential nature. Much of the time we operate from the protective layer.”

This protective layer, our defense mechanisms erected in response to the pain and terror of this life, causes us to do things for which we feel ashamed. We screw up time and time again.

We fight with our spouses and yell at our kids. We turn to our drugs of choice and ourcomfort objects instead of turning to God. We lie, cheat, and steal. We can be petty and jealous, ungrateful and mean, vengeful and unforgiving, lustful and greedy, fearful and prideful.

And we wonder if there is any redemption for us. In desperation and futility, guilt and shame — and yet with a sliver of hope — we think, “What would You do with us?”

Or, when wounded by others, we symbolically fling our offenders before God and demand that they be punished.

In both cases, I imagine Christ stooping down and, pondering how to really reach us, writing some secret in the dirt, some golden key of wisdom that could unlock an invaluable treasure trove of forgiveness, redemption, beauty, and joy, if we were to really understand it.

I like to find videos that go along with our message and "stumbled upon" (was led to) to the following.  At first glance (dare I say with the wrong goggles on?) I thought the "out-dated" videography could have little to teach me.  How wrong I was.

It made me commit within my heart to look for the gold behind the cracked clay exterior, to see the shining Buddha, the child of God within, the child who is so loved and cherished by our Father in Heaven.

I prayed for charity.