As shoplifters go, she wasn’t the sharpest tool in the box.
Which is why 23 year old Anna was caught with 200 Euros worth of goods stuffed into a pillowcase down her front in Poundland.
Now I’ve nothing against Poundland. I love the way that blow-torches, last years calendars and wig extensions can nestle next to each other on the shelves as if there’s some kind of weird twisted connection that I can’t figure out. I love randomness like that.
But the only real connection is that they are all cheap, really cheap, and have been bought in remainder sales and shoved here to atttract the unwary, random shoppers, like Anna.
So I can barely imagine what two hundred Euros worth of such -forgive me- TACK looks like when bundled into a secreted pillowcase.
The point is, if you’re going to steal something, why not pick something worth stealing? That’s the purpose of theft, surely?
Which is what makes John 10:10 so interesting. “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy…” Jesus was talking about the devil. Jesus was acknowledging the immense power of evil in the world that corrupts, disfigures and scatters. Like a tidal wave that smashes and drowns everything in its path, it kills and destroys.
But he comes to steal too. And that’s interesting. Because you only steal what is valuable, Anna. You don’t waste your energy on the cheap stuff.
An unfeeling and uncaring person might stamp on a butterfly (“kill and destroy”) but a lepidopterologist (!) will know the butterfly’s true value.
“The thief comes only to steal…” The devil knows your true value. There’s a strange thought.
And so does God. “The Son of Man came to seek and to save…” “I am come that you might have life, and life in all its fulness.”
Because, baby, Poundland you ain’t.
Related articles
- Can the Devil Rob You of Your Healing? (lynleahz.com)
- The Abundant life? Or Life Abundantly – > Understanding John 10:10 (testifyingtograce.wordpress.com)
Dr Ken Baker 