It was one of the wettest days of the year and we were standing beside what we called 'the big stone'. It seemed to take an age to tramp up the hill, through the forest park and my legs were much shorter than they are now, but eventually we came to a clearing on top of the mountain and there in the distance it stood, surveying the whole of Carlingford Lough like an emperor studying his estate. Somehow we managed to scramble on to its flattish top, with a little help from mum and my auntie and a couple of pictures later we were back down again. But the rain was coming down as well and when I look back those old pictures now, I see we were wearing those old,black, semi-transparent macs over our clothes. I'm sure someone in your family possessed one too and you always carried them on a day out in our climate, for they could be rolled up into something resembling the size of a small umbrella and kept fastened in that shape with the help of a rubber band. And, to quote a certain individual, they haven't gone away you know! You just need to look at all the marching bands that have started to parade at this time of year and almost every member has one strapped to their uniform. Plastic was certainly nothing new to us growing up. Most of our toys, my football, parts of kitchen utensils and the like were already plastic but it had started to make inroads to new areas previously undiscovered. Although all the records I possessed had cardboard overs, the new cassette tape was almost all plastic as was its box and increasingly groceries were coming home in plastic wrapping and inside plastic bags. Then more parts in the car interior were made from plastic and soon the bumpers were no longer chrome coloured either as more and more plastics came in a greater variety of colours. Soon there were plastics in our clothes, often mixed with natural materials and sometimes just on their own, plastic shoes and before long people not content with growing old disgracefully or people just not content, started to put plastic inside their bodies. Look it's bad enough going to the doctor to get an injection or having to be opened up for necessary surgery but the fact that people would want to go through such trauma just to change the way they look just bewilders me. Now I can understand those for whom plastic surgery is necessary on medical grounds but I don't think I could justify it because of the shape of my nose or mouth or because God didn't give me enough of what other people have!
When I looked into my wallet this morning, there was more plastic than leather or indeed paper and I've already noticed that some of the big supermarkets no longer take written cheques and seem to prefer that rectangular piece of plastic with the special number, Anyway, dad never had any plastic on him, the closest he ever got to carrying plastic was the nylon twine that was wrapped around the hay bales that he brought to the cattle. But he survived without it all his life. Now, however, we seem to have plastic cards for so many purposes including our driving license but using most of the others usually means we are going to lose money in the process. Isn't it strange how plastic can ruin our lives if we're not careful. Some are destroyed by having it inside their body and some are ruined by not keeping it inside their pocket. It's amazing that an invention from the early part of this century, which would ultimately affect the way we live, could also be so detrimental. And, to quote a certain individual, it hasn't gone away , you know! For while plastic can often rot lives through human misuse, it isn't so easy to get it to rot itself.
But maybe there's the key to the whole problem. It's our misuse not the invention which has caused the problem. The Bible contains many stories of people who misused their position or their power. I think of Saul, David and Solomon, all mighty kings of Israel but whose love of power would ultimately be their downfall. Or Samson whose strength became his weakness and of course Judas whose position allowed him to betray his master. But they are not alone and more than anything, they warn us of the dangers of misusing what God has given us to enjoy. Whether it be position, power, wealth, gifts or talents, He expects us to use them properly for His glory and not to further our own selfish interests. Paul, writing to Timothy, advises him to 'Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.' And isn't that the answer. Like our bodies, even plastic will rot away some day, but God is there for ever and he wants us to join Him in heaven. Let Him mould your life and use it for His glory.
