A major financial institution has employed a fairly successful advertising slogan as of late. Their commercials all end with the pointed question: “What’s in your wallet?” Recently, having viewed one such commercial, my mind wandered back to a cartoon from my childhood. It was an old Blake Edwards’ “Pink Panther” cartoon produced in 1965 (the third in the series) by David H. DePatie and Friz Freleng and titled “We Give Pink Stamps”.
Not surprisingly, given the marvels of the internet, it did not take me very long to find it on the world wide web. It can be viewed in it's entirety at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBiSD6Aj2W4.
The plot of the 6 plus minute cartoon is that the Pink Panther gets himself inadvertently locked inside a department store for the night. To amuse himself and pass the time, he plays with virtually every toy and/or prop imaginable. At length, he gets his pink fur dirty in the process; and thus decides to run himself through the combination washer/dryer.
Alas, upon exiting the dryer, he finds himself a ball of floating fluff. To remedy this, he stretches out on an ironing board and begins to press his nice clean (albeit wrinkled) pink fur. Surprisingly, the phone rings in the midst this process and he reaches to answer it. (It is never explained who was calling the department store in the wee hours of the morning, let alone why he never called for help given that a phone was available all along.)
What does happen is the inevitable - for while he is distracted with the phone, the unattended iron manages to burn a hole right through him. When he emerges from the ironing board, he discovers that he has an iron shaped hole thought his chest. What follows is a flurry of humorous activity as he desperately seeks to find something to fill this void. After trying and rejecting many objects, he finally settles on a wall clock that fits nicely into the void and then turns and walks away.
Not surprisingly, given the marvels of the internet, it did not take me very long to find it on the world wide web. It can be viewed in it's entirety at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBiSD6Aj2W4.
The plot of the 6 plus minute cartoon is that the Pink Panther gets himself inadvertently locked inside a department store for the night. To amuse himself and pass the time, he plays with virtually every toy and/or prop imaginable. At length, he gets his pink fur dirty in the process; and thus decides to run himself through the combination washer/dryer.
Alas, upon exiting the dryer, he finds himself a ball of floating fluff. To remedy this, he stretches out on an ironing board and begins to press his nice clean (albeit wrinkled) pink fur. Surprisingly, the phone rings in the midst this process and he reaches to answer it. (It is never explained who was calling the department store in the wee hours of the morning, let alone why he never called for help given that a phone was available all along.)
What does happen is the inevitable - for while he is distracted with the phone, the unattended iron manages to burn a hole right through him. When he emerges from the ironing board, he discovers that he has an iron shaped hole thought his chest. What follows is a flurry of humorous activity as he desperately seeks to find something to fill this void. After trying and rejecting many objects, he finally settles on a wall clock that fits nicely into the void and then turns and walks away.
I share all of this this because I have often reflected on it as an illustration of the human predicament. As the story of Adam and eve makes plain in Genesis chapter 3, we were all burned by sin. The resultant void in our lives has left every one of us involved in a lifelong pursuit – that of attempting to fill this void. Accordingly, men and women everywhere have tried just about every conceivable object, activity and relationship they could find to fill the void. But all of these have come up short. Indeed, about the most that can be said is that we have only consumed a lot of time in the process.
The reason for this is that the void is a spiritual one. And nothing temporal (that is, nothing of this world) can fill such a void. For a spiritual void can only be filled by something of spiritual substance. And the Biblical word for spiritual substance is “gospel”. The need we all have in our heart can only be met by a restored relationship with Almighty God, our Creator. And that relationship is only possible through His Son, Jesus Christ, whose vicarious death and resurrection provided the atonement for our sin that makes such a relationship with a Holy and Righteous God possible.
So, I leave you with this question, my friend: “What’s in your soul?” And also with the answer - for as the Apostle John tells us in His First New Testament Letter (chapter 5, verses 11 and 12): “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.”
The reason for this is that the void is a spiritual one. And nothing temporal (that is, nothing of this world) can fill such a void. For a spiritual void can only be filled by something of spiritual substance. And the Biblical word for spiritual substance is “gospel”. The need we all have in our heart can only be met by a restored relationship with Almighty God, our Creator. And that relationship is only possible through His Son, Jesus Christ, whose vicarious death and resurrection provided the atonement for our sin that makes such a relationship with a Holy and Righteous God possible.
So, I leave you with this question, my friend: “What’s in your soul?” And also with the answer - for as the Apostle John tells us in His First New Testament Letter (chapter 5, verses 11 and 12): “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.”