Coco Calling No.272 - The Greatest Inventions of All

I never cease to be amazed by some of the so-called ‘inventions’ that humans come up with. Things such as sandals with built-in metal detectors. An automatic ice cream cone rotator, so that they can effortlessly lick their ice-creams from all sides. A bikini covered in mini solar panels which can be used to generate power for a radio or a laptop.  Slippers with LED lights at the front to help them tiptoe to the loo at night. And then they have also come up with the ‘Slugbot,’ -an AI robot which crawls around the garden at night looking for slugs. When it finds one, it sucks it in and ‘digests’ it into an organic power source which keeps the Slugbot running.

I’ve sometimes fancied myself as a bit of an inventor. I’d like to connect the London Eye up to the electricity grid and then breed the most gi-enormous hamster to use it as its running wheel. Then we could power up the whole of London!

But sadly, not all inventions are used for very good purposes. Things like guns and bombs and missiles and chainsaws are daily reminders that humans cannot be trusted. They often lack the wisdom, the maturity, the goodness and the generosity to use their inventions for the good of the world. And that’s why we always need to have the presence of God in the background. Because God’s inventions are for the good of us all. And not only that; they are the greatest inventions we will ever know. Because God invented Love, Forgiveness, Compassion, Generosity, Sacrifice, Salvation and Heaven. Nothing that any of us can create here on Earth will ever compete with or surpass these special gifts. And anyway, even if I did manage to breed a giant hamster, it might go AWOL and turn into London’s version of King Kong. Just imagine the havoc it could cause if it climbed up the Shard with Queen Camilla in its clutches!

No, only God can be trusted with His creations; the rest of us need to count our blessings that He is ultimately in charge of everything……

“God made us: invented us as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on petrol, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now, God designed the human machine to run on Himself.”                                                   (C.S. Lewis: [1898-1963]: Northern Irish writer, scholar and Anglican Lay Theologian)

“I haven’t failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

(Thomas Edison: [1847–1931]: American inventor and businessman who amongst many things, invented electric power generation.)

“Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.”                                          (1 Peter 4:10)