An Analysis of Disintegration

You may be wondering what is pictured in that photo above. And that would be a great question. 

This past weekend my husband decided to clean our garage. It was a bit long overdue and there was quite a bit of “stuff” in there that we hadn’t seen for rather a long time. (You know those photos of picture-perfect garages with bins placed neatly on shelves? Yeah, not us.) Anyway, one of the things he found was an old blanket. I didn’t even recognize it so I have no idea where it came from. My husband brought it into the house and threw it in the washer.

When my daughter went to the washer, the above photo shows what she found. Thousands and thousands of tiny pieces of that blanket. The whole thing had literally disintegrated into nothing.nothing.

What a wonderful spiritual lesson we can learn from this. I couldn’t pass this one up! Actually there are two. I won’t spend a lot of time on the first one but I do want to touch on it. 

First, blankets get old and disintegrate. Everything gets older and weaker. Think of something you bought a year or two ago. Is it getting better? At the very least it looks the same. It doesn’t grow shinier and stronger as the years go by. This is a basic law of science. Things disintegrate as they age. Now think of this in light of evolution. Do you notice that it goes completely against this established law? There is no logic there whatsoever. It is my opinion that this illogical belief in evolution set the people up for the great deception we are seeing at work today.

Don’t let anyone intimidate you into thinking there is merit to the theory of evolution. They may try to intimidate you with their big words and degrees but the bottom line is that no one alive today was actually there in the beginning and what you believe is based on your starting point.

And this is just one way evolution goes against basic and tested scientific laws. It takes more faith to believe in evolution than to believe that God created the world. Just saying…

But I’d like to take this morning to consider this blanket in a different light. When my kids were little three out of four of them had a “blankie”. Their blankets were a form of security. They wanted them to relax and sleep with (and probably would have taken them everywhere if we had let them).

You see, we all have those things we turn to for security. We have those things we turn to that feel comfortable. Or help us escape from the real world. 

But when I looked at that trash can filled with those tiny blanket pieces, I was struck by the fact that all of those things will disintegrate, too. 

No love of the world will matter in the end. Sports; entertainment; hobbies; cars or boats or planes; temporal goals to make money or to climb a social or corporate ladder (and even fighting for freedom); buckets list full of daring (or average) things to do–none of this will matter. They will disintegrate like dust. Those things we obsess about–those things that gobble up hours of our time–those things that consume us, they will disintegrate just like that blanket.

There was once a man who wielded great power in a small church. But guess what happened when he got old and decrepit? Suddenly, his opinion didn’t matter that much anymore. You see, none of those things last. None of them. 

While there is nothing wrong in enjoying the good things of life, they shouldn’t consume us. I believe this is the number one way Satan distracts and renders the believer ineffective–wrap them up in the things of this world that don’t really matter. 

But let’s also take a look at that blanket in light of true vs. false religion. Worldly priorities aren’t the only thing that will disintegrate. So, too, will false religions.

You see, Christianity can be thrown in any washer, rung out a million times, hung out to dry in the fiercest of weather, and still come out strong and looking like new. It stands up to its promises.

All other religions disintegrate under pressure. Eventually, they leave people feeling hopeless and lost. From demon and ancestor worship to the “health and wealth” or “social” gospels, the blame is on you if things go wrong. It all comes back to something you need to do or didn’t do. It’s a horrible way to live. Oh, many are pleasantly deceived for a time but if you talk to those caught up in other religions, you quickly realize that the majority of them are not at peace. They really don’t know if they are good enough or if they’ve done enough to warrant heaven. 

What an amazing contrast we have in scripture–

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. ¹⁸ Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. John 3:16-18

Only biblical Christianity teaches that there is nothing we can do. Do you realize that this is the only religion that doesn’t teach that man needs to DO something in order to be right with God? It is one of the ways to know that it is the only true religion. It’s unique among every other world religion in that way. 

So why is it so hated? Why do people cling to their disintegrating blankets? The next verse in John 3 gives us a little insight to that–

This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. John 3:19

People love darkness. They are completely disinterested in walking towards the light. What does that darkness consist of? I John 2:16 tells us–

For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.

You see to follow Christ, we must give up everything. We must first give up our pride. There is NOTHING we can do. NOTHING. We are lost sinners without hope. That’s a hard pill to swallow for most people and is the greatest hindrance to accepting that gift that Jesus freely offers.

And we must give up our lusts. The sins we love. The sins we enjoy. The sins that call us so enticingly. And, instead, we must pick up our cross and deny ourselves (Luke 9:23). That does not look very appealing to a world obsessed with self.

Only the saved person can understand the peace and joy that comes from a life lived for God. Only they can understand that, in losing our lives, we find them! (Matthew 16:25) This makes NO sense to the world.

And so, dear Christian, recognize that you have the blanket that will never disintegrate. While others around you are holding on to things that are fading away, disappearing, and turning to dust, you have something to hold on that will never diminish in its glory.

Let’s share this truth freely and often and with enthusiasm as God gives us opportunities.