Never has there been a product as versatile as the paper bag. At one time
the staple of super markets all throughout America, it was where the bag boy
sorted through your items and bagged them accordingly, never crushing the eggs.
It was in a time where they would ask if you wanted double bagging for the heavy
items, and even some stores prepared ahead of time by buying a double bagged
bag. They were folded with care when unloaded at home, and then at our house
piled between the refrigerator and the wall,for later use. Never thrown away
unless ripped or torn by over bagging. They were the home made covers for our
school books, where many a first week of school was spent at the kitchen table
with scissors and scotch tape. They were flexible, yet durable, and you could
write notes on them, or the number of the girl next to you in math. They
could be used at Halloween when kids used to patrol the neighborhood, with the
deluxe model with handle the preferred bag, until we got older and a pillow case
would hold more and looked cooler. They were the big brother to the sandwich
bag, standard equipment from third grade on when lunch boxes with Woody
Woodpecker were just for kids. Even an insulated model, just the right size for
the half gallon of ice cream, with a silver foil covered one with an Igloo on
it. Somehow they just weren’t as cool at school, as any deviation from brown
was considered heresy and the reason for being made fun of.
But at a time when women shopped downtown or at shopping centers, the bags
she carried told a lot about her. Sears bags, multicolored Hess Brothers bags,
Nordstroms bags, and the like told of your social standing and your financial
status as a shopper. Free advertising as your walked from store to store. They
were function before form or vice versa, with the brown sandwich bag a Christmas
tradition in New Mexico, the luminaria, a sandwich bag filled with sand, and
then a lit candle inside, lining driveways, sidewalks, and entire neighborhoods,
celebrating the coming of Christ. Something so organic, made from trees, that
the tree huggers rebelled, and soon the plastic bag was offered. Paper or
plastic? We always insisted on paper, can’t cover a book with plastic, and like
the question red or green, do you really need to ask? Green of course, and my
bag will always be brown.
But even the plastic bag is about to go the way of the paper bag, in
California, they have outlawed them, no longer free where you buy your
groceries, and so we recycle them. How classless, and dirty, as I watch
shoppers pick through the box of used bags. Or carry their old ones in. Sticky
and dirty, something no bag boy in his right mind would ever put a hand in, yet
again another sign that progress is a good thing, when it doesn’t go on too
long. I imagine someday someone will come upon a warehouse full of brown grocery
bags, and they will become trendy. Selling for $100/bag, the rich and trendy
will be seen toting them along, a status symbol of what used to be, and like
used Levi’s will command a high price, coming full circle from practical to in
practical, to be replaced, then thrown away, and rediscovered. Sad we never
realize what we have until it is gone...maybe just one more trip to the market,
even ask me paper or plastic, just so I can say paper one more time. Save the
paper bag, a campaign that is coming and you read about it here first!
We live in a strange world today in case you haven’t noticed. Common sense
that once was is gone, and where once people changed things, now things are
changing the people. It has been noted that if PR could bring a market down,
the police would have been out of business long ago. Same with the church, with
widespread corruption, priests being caught playing slap and tickle with boys
and girls, and TV evangelists the new standard by which we are measured, it is
good to know that Jesus never changes. That despite all the church rhetoric,
denominational differences, religious bias, and lack of love, his true church
today is still alive and well. When we come to grips with the truth that we the
believers are the true church, and not the building or store front in a strip
mall, we see the truth and not its poor substitute. With so much emphasis on
church building, the programs and procedures fail to note that unless God builds
the church, we labor in vain. Which may explain why so many get burnt out, or
change churches, it is the same old junk, just in a new package. Trying to stay
ahead less the devil gain ground, neglecting to see they are aiding him. Maybe
God said it best, he asked Jeremiah, “if you cannot run with men, how do you
expect to keep up with horses?” Maybe a good question to ask ourselves, are we
about church or Jesus Christ? How many don’t know or cannot tell the
difference? How many pay tithes under compulsion to the church, when God just
tells us to set aside what we can with each paycheck? Givers or bitter
tithers? Is it really the paper or plastic question revisited, as many churches
take credit cards, Mastercharge instead of giving the master charge. God
doesn’t need your money, he needs your heart of obedience, to trust and show
others his grace. Yet just as Jacob was favored above his brother Esau, today’s
religious atmosphere is more about the message title than what is in it. Esau
liked the things of man, Jacob the things of God, so much he wrestled with the
angel until God blessed him. What are you wrestling with? Or who?
We are told it is not what goes into a man but what comes out of him that
is important. Esau stands for the gluttonous person, while Jacob stands for the
one who pursues God and will not settle for less. I wonder, has the gospel been
watered down enough that we have gone from paper to plastic to having the truth
outlawed because it is unpopular? Jesus didn’t need a PR man, but did have John
the Baptist. Today we have the holy spirit, who seems to be working overtime to
keep the church at large alive. But soon when the choice comes down to church
or Jesus, will we go the way of the paper bag, and accept a substitute? Will we
forego Jesus just to feel good, and like the old hippie posters, misuse
scripture for our own use? Remember the Jesus poster “let them wear their hair
any length they want?” Remember Jesus Christ Superstar and how many believed
the musical over the Bible? In a paper or plastic world, or a recycled world, I
am grateful my Lord is not a recycled God who changes with the trends of the
time. Jesus said the truth will set us free, today is a great day to become
free form religion, denominational doctrine, and church rhetoric, and experience
the holy spirit alive. Imagine our lives as useful and reliable as the old
brown bag, with Jesus inside. Some look at the bag. God looks at what is
inside. Paper or plastic God will still bless you, remember he too made Esau a
nation, only Jacob saw the importance of what was inside. Remember paper covers
rock and wins. Avocados ripen in paper and no one ever suffocated in a paper
bag. Plastic never covered anything....so which is it?
And please, do yourself a favor, don’t even ask me about straws...
love with compassion,
Mike
matthew25biker.blogspot.com