Job 33:28

Monday, April 10, 2006

I went to the auto show with DEB.

It seems that Honda is coming out with a new hatchback called a “Fit” in 2007.
Even stranger than me going to an auto show, or a car being named “Fit” is the fact that as part of the promotional literature for the Fit, Honda produced a small flip book. If you flip the pages one way you see the outside of the Fit, and a llama. If you flip it the other way you see the inside of the fit, sans llama.

So, I was flipping through the book, and at first glance the llama looked like a large (very large) dog with its head hanging out the back window (like they do.) But suddenly I realized it was not a dog and I said, “Hey, that’s a llama!”

The guy at the counter said, “Sure, you win a prize if you can tell me why the llama is in the Fit.”
I said, “Oh, well,” (in a matter of fact kind of tone) “I know.”
He said, “You do?” (I’m thinking he didn’t actually know himself.)
I said, “Sure, They are taking him to get sacrificed.”
(The guy looked mortified.)
He said, “Oh!” and “well!” and “Oh! I didn’t expect that.”

Heck, I don’t expect half the things that come out of my mouth. But to be honest I didn’t even say it for the (high) shock value that it generated. I’m sure this Fit guy and I were on two totally different wave lengths.

I was thinking the only time I’ve ever seen livestock in the back of a hatchback (what the . . .) was in Pakistan when the people were buying goats and sheep to fatten up before they sacrificed them in memory of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son.

It took me a moment to figure out why he was so appalled by what I said.

Sacrifice.
It’s kind of a dirty word in these parts.

We don’t sacrifice. We don’t really know sacrifice. We know animal rights, but not spilt blood, sticky fur – warm freshly butchered flesh to offer in atonement or remembrance.
The word “sacrifice” for Christian America does not conjure up images of the very core of our religion, but instead dirty defiled imagery of satanic rites done in secret and in darkness.

It’s unfortunate, unfortunate that we are too lackadaisical a people to keep our sacred ideas and words out of the dark.

I got a Honda bracelet as my prize. Both bracelet and llama book will arrive in Japan in approximately 6-8 weeks. To PK with love.