Monday, August 27, 2007

Yom Teruah: Pet Rocks

The Pet Industry in the U.S. is a multi-billion dollar industry. It goes through phases and fads; several years back some enterprising fellow managed to convince a lot of people to fork over a lot of bucks to purchase Pet Rocks. I think that was the origin of a nagging question surrounding "Pets" that I have pondered over many years: do we train our "pets" or do our pets train us?
Notwithstanding the many interpretations that various churches and theologies have given to "The Rock"---Jesus or Peter being among the more controversial---perhaps it is time to ask: has your Pet Rock trained you or are you rearing up your Pet according to your notion of what a good Pet should be... I'll leave you to the question of whether your Pet is a Pit Bull, a Barking Beagle, a decorated Pet Rock, or a Cuddles the Cat!
Since it seems to me self-evident that our "pet" or our "Pet" is an invention of the vanity of our imagination, let's move to one of the questions Yom Teruah may be blowing in our ears: does the Master Yeshua train us up in the Way (Torah) we are to go, or are we attempting to "master" the Master, that is train Him (maybe even dress Him up according to the latest style of Puppie-dom!) in our ways and insist He behave: that is come on our command, sit on our command, perform cute tricks on our command...?
Sooner or later seems to me the Pet Rock will fall on us, or at least cause us to stumble. The Torah Rock will save me.




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