Daily Word of Grace (May 25, 2020)

In the soundtrack of the funny and insightful 1995 coming of age film Clueless is my favorite song by Radiohead, a song about the longing for the real thing in a plastic world, a song entitled “Fake Plastic Trees.”  Thom Yorke sings, “A green plastic watering can for a fake Chinese rubber plant in the fake plastic earth, that she bought from a rubber man in a town full of rubber plans to get rid of itself….It wears her out, it wears her out, it wears her out, it wears her out.”  The last verse really hits home for me, “She looks like the real thing, she tastes like the real thing, my fake plastic love.  But I can’t help the feeling I could blow through the ceiling if I just turn and run…and it wears me out, it wears me out, it wears me out, it wears me out.”  “Fake plastic love” indeed wears us out.  In our world full of plastic goods, plastic smiles, and yes, plastic expressions of Christianity, we all still have a longing for real love from a real Person, the “real thing” as opposed to “fake plastic love.”  In Jesus Christ God offers exactly that-real love for real people like you and me.  There is nothing plastic or fake about the love of God, a love so real that it cost Jesus his life, which scripture assures us is the proof of God’s very real love for all of us (Romans 5:8).  This real love of God remains rejuvenating good news for clueless people worn out in a plastic world.