THINGS   BREAK

[Since  both  readings for this 34 Tuesday in Ordinary Time  talk about statues and buildings - temples and holy places - breaking and falling down - I decided to write a short meditation entitled, “Things Break.”]

Cars crash, get scratched and dented,  license plates rust, end up in junk yards…

Pipes break….

Skin wrinkles ….

Bodies - and body parts age, sag, weaken, get cancer, get arthritis,  and eventually wear out….

Paper crumbles - writing ink fades and pictures fade - the aging process ….

Food rots ….

Whales die - some making it from 30 to 70 years - depending on the type of whale….

Hippos - some make it too 40 to 50 years of life.

Planes get mothballed in the desert of Arizona or get sold to 3^rd world countries ….

Moths and butterflies  last 8 to 9 months of so….

Sparrows can  last 3 years, song parrots -40 to 60 years or longer ….

Fences fall - and walls crumble ….

Roads get pot holes …..

Shoes get tossed or go to Goodwill….

Churches and banks - close and are abandoned - especially in the inner city….

Rubber wears out when it hits the road ….

Hammers break ….

Pottery breaks ….

Oak trees - some make it to 400 years - while some redwood trees make it to 500 to 800 or even 2000 years ….

T-shirts and jockey shorts - all underwear - wears out - gets holes and is tossed….

Umbrellas break and are blown apart on very windy days….

Milk goes sour…..

Cell phones and computers are replaced ….

Wood cracks - eventually -  even in century old church benches - as well as bench cushions….

Wedding rings are pawned ….

Hair grays and sometimes disappears ….

Black plastic bags with lots of stuff gets picked up from big jumbo plastic containers and ends up in garbage dumps or recycling centers…..

We die and end up in cemeteries … lots of times with a stone with names and numbers on it - that longer than we lasted….

Jesus lived some 33 years of life - but remember as you come up for communion this morning, this Jesus said in John 5: 51 “I am the living bread which has come down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live fore ever….