The Form vs. The Function

When my daughter was very young she had a peculiar propensity to turn everything into a cellphone. I suppose in retrospect it's not as odd as it seemed at the time. After all, she is a girl and we all know that girls love to talk. But the more I think about this, it is more likely that she acquired the habit from watching mom and dad go through their daily routine with a cell phone tucked semi-precariously under their chins as we fed her, played with her, tied her shoes, scolded her, and tucked her into bed at night. It probably seemed the most natural thing in the world to her. Yet, somehow I found it odd that she held up to her tiny ear and talked to blocks, Legos, dolls, mittens, and Easy Bake oven pans like they were cell phones.

Eventually, her mom found a toy cell phone and Sierra loved it. It looked remarkably like a real phone. It flipped open like a cell phone, it rang like a cell phone, it beeped like a cell phone, and even said "hello", "how are you? ", and " what are you doing today?" like a real person. It ran through batteries like a real cell phone as well, but they were the non-rechargable AA variety.

By all cursory accounts, it was a cell phone, except it didn't function as a cell phone. It was a  moulded plastic housing with a microprocessor mounted on a circuit board that made sounds, flashed lights, and consumed batteries. Lots and lots of batteries. I found myself longing for the days of the block phone, but Sierra was happier with the double A gobbling gab box. The image of a cell phone.

For all the sounds, lights, and appearance of this little technological marvel , it wasn't a cell phone. It was only the image of a cell phone. It couldn't call, text, web search, GPS locate, schedule, plan, or any of the features that we desire in a cell phone. The form was flawless, but the function was useless. Sierra was dazzled nonetheless. In her eyes, it was the most wonderous and necessary object she could possess, even clutching it in her tiny hand as daddy carried her off to bed.

We are made in the image of God, much as Sierra's toy was the image of a cell phone. We have some commonalities. We can create and destroy. We can love and despise. We can help and hinder. We can attend and ignore. We can bless and curse. We can work and rest. We can sow and reap. We can forgive and harbor. But we do not have the Nature of God. We are but the hollow and shadow of the function. We are part of Creation, and we should never confuse the Creation with the Creator, lest we place the form over the function.