The Transporter

     I admit to being a Star Trek fan, not enough to wear a costume and/or go to a convention, but enough to recognize most of the references. The original "Star Trek" premiered when I was an impressionable youth and "The Next Generation", when my kids were impressionable youths. As a matter of fact, the only time the television was allowed on during dinner at our house, was Saturday night for "The Next Generation". Segue to last weekend's refrigerator shopping. In the new refrigerators, instead of a dorky light bulb, there is a circular panel of lights resembling the transporter pads of the Enterprise. I almost succumbed to a too small refrigerator just for the transporter effect. For the non-Trekkies, a transporter separated the molecules of whatever was placed on it and beamed them vast distances through space where they would reassemble into their original form (most of the time--depending on the episode). Wouldn't it be wonderful to transport food from the refrigerator to the table and back--not to mention socks, the hamster and anything else that would fit on the mini transporter pad? Unfortunately, there is no magical means for moving things from one place to another--yet!
     Segue again to my previous blog on "Christians, the Next Generation". Expecting young Christians to reach the same spiritual conclusions we have, without our experiences is like trying to put them on a spiritual transporter pad. For example, on the days when my husband went out for lunch, he would come home from work and tell me there was no need for me to fix dinner. This was poor consolation to the kids and I since we did not get full when he went out to lunch, no matter how well he described it to us. There is no magical way to move Christians to spiritual maturity. God has used the same transporter for many years, it is called life. Although we generously, (and fruitlessly) offer our descendants the benefit of our experiences, there is no substitute for the step-by-step, day by day plodding of life. For now the transporter beam is limited to a dream in my Trekkie head, and a gleam in my someday refrigerator.