Eighty-seven cents of taillight bulb, six dollars of waiting. Anyone who frequents auto parts counters knows that that is part of the price for a truly remarkable capitalist system in which one can find even the most esoteric part for whatever is in need of repair. The web provides the latest twist, transferring the hunting and parts research to our side of the counter, if not the ordering, shipping, waiting, installation and determination of the level of consumer satisfaction!

Age and ultraviolet light finally caught up with a plastic throttle linkage on my walk-behind mower. Armed with model number and exploded parts diagrams (online, of course), the offending piece was located though it required purchasing the entire bracket assembly which surrounded it. Yet, for all the time it took, the bottom line is that a 45-mile roundtrip was avoided, the part located, paid for, and a delivery date with tracking number assured. Without the detail of a parts diagram, without the careful ordering of information coupled with a reliable system of payment and delivery, it might have added up to several weeks of waiting. Instead, I should be up and mowing in just a few days.

Understanding our faith takes more than an ordered understanding of model and part numbers, of disseminating and sharing precise, often unchanging, information. It is more than making sure that serial numbers agree with manufacturer’s records or that we are in a valid database. Whether our model number is known by God, whether we can be found in God’s grace index, is not based on race or gender, nationality or lifestyle orientation. It depends less on works than on faith, on being God’s children rather than claiming to be more worthy than our neighbor. We cannot be excluded from God’s love any more than we can exclude our own children when we deem them imperfect, as they will us in time.

The Psalmist expresses great confidence in God’s omniscient and loving presence. “[You] have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways … such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it. Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from our presence? ... [It] was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. (Psalm 139:1-3,6-7,13-15, NRSV).

We are far more than I.D. numbers or parts associated with diagrams or black and white images in some divine instruction manual. We are blazing color and evolving personalities filled with the capacity for remarkable insight and deep theological understanding. We are in the hands of a master craftsman who refuses to confine us to a manual or limit us to a single purpose. For among the billions on this earth, God has our unique number and will put us to our best use if we but allow.