The Bar Ichy Code

Things seem to cost more on the coast. That was my assumption when my family visited a pharmacy last week while on vacation. We needed some bug bit balm, or something to cure the vacation ichy’s. Joni and her sister were paying for the items. I wasn’t paying a lot of attention as our treasures were being rung up. I was being hypnotized by the bar code. You hear the blip, blip, blip as your items are run across the scanner thingy. All of a sudden, the blip went beeeeeeep! I heard the clerk’s voice say,

“Whoa, look at that!”

There are certain people you don’t want to hear that from. Your dentist is one. . .Your auto mechanic is another. I’ve not heard that statement from a pharmacy clerk before, so I wasn’t worried until I looked up.

The cash register told the story. The ointment was $34,260.69 (plus tax)! I always thought prices were a little high on the coast, but this seemed a bit much.

I’m guessing there was something wrong with the do hickey that connects the scanner with the what-cha-ma-call-it! In other words, I had no clue what the problem was. The clerk scanned the bug balm again. Again, the price came up. I held my breath. What was next; a thousand dollars for a Tic Tac? Retail clerks are such amazing people. She punched about a thousand buttons, solved the problem, and we were soon on our way, bug balm in hand and our vacation budget intact.

Bar Codes fascinate me. They are on most products we buy; everything from toilet paper to underwear. The codes seem to mysteriously know about sale prices, coupons and my cat’s name. Bar Codes are also like your appendix, or the brakes on your car. You don’t pay any attention to it until something goes wrong.

God has given us a scanner for the Bar Codes of our lives. It has a more religious sounding name; The Holy Spirit. In John 16:5-15 Jesus tells his disciples that he will send the Holy Spirit to be with us. The Holy Spirit scans our lives daily and knows more about us than we do about ourselves. Every so often, we hear a beeeeep. Something is wrong. It might be a faulty attitude, a misspoken word, some gossip or a grudge. We see the sin, fix it, and life goes on.

Scanners come in different shapes and sizes. There are the ones on the little belt that runs by itself at the check out stand. It also the hand held ones the check out folks use so you don’t have to lift the 50 lb bag of cat food out of your cart. The Holy Spirit works in various ways too. He works through the Bible, a small voice in our minds, and in our small groups as we share our lives with each other.

The next time you are in a check out line, remember that God is checking you out as well. You might not hear a beep, but you might get a spiritual pat on the back or poke in the ribs, depending on how your code is doing.

How much did you pay for YOUR bug balm?