Once again, it's that time of year when we celebrate our annual spring cleaning! Actually, every day around here is the same when it comes to keeping our place livable because both of us were brought up to pick up our stuff, put things away when we get through playing with them and just have a home everyone will enjoy visiting.

Anyway, I opened a box and noticed a tag that read in big letters, "Void if detached!" Whatever it had been attached to was no longer under warranty. Were the feds checking their records and watching for folks like me? Would I have to wear a giant "V" on my shirt so the public would know that I had violated the law? Would I find myself being sent to Shawshank prison and spend years with Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins? I digress.

Those words really bother me. Void if detached. It sounds like the way we feel now and then. Have you ever felt detached, sort of lost, wandering around without protection and with no place to hide? Do you remember the time when you moved to a new town, transferred to a new job, left your old stomping grounds and felt so lonely? 

We not only left the familiar, but also our friends. Please don't stay sad. I want you to remember but not to dwell on that memory too long.

There is a story about a social worker who worked with an elderly lady who had spent her lifetime in an inner-city housing project. As far as the social worker was concerned, this poor old lady had never seen a farm, never walked in an open grassy meadow, never sat on a porch rocker and watched the sun set behind the hills and never had a quiet spot she could call her own private world. The worker just wanted this lady to experience green grass, shady trees and the sounds of all outdoors if only for a week. She could imagine her feeling the warm sunshine and fresh air, and how about a quiet evening just watching the stars and smiling at the lighting bugs? We could say that she wanted to take her from Atlanta to Statesboro.

The elderly lady took it for two days and then, very pointedly said, "I want to go home now!"

"What's wrong?" the social worker asked.

The lady snapped back, "Trees ain't people!"

Some of us are very fortunate to discover what really makes our lives meaningful, while so many others spend a lifetime of searching for that illusive utopia, which is just around the corner, over there or almost in their grasp.

The apostle, Paul, stood in the middle of the Areopagus and said, "Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are religious. You even have statues to an unknown god."

The Greeks were a very devout people with a powerful fear of the unknown and worshipped and gave sacrifice to these mysterious gods and goddesses, who they believed controlled their destiny. 

Most of those ancient deities were named, but there was always a statue to the unknown god so he or she would not be offended.

While the Greeks were searching for some kind of connection with the unknown, they also tried to make their lives worthy of consideration through self-denial and the wisdom of philosophy. Paul tells them clearly and directly that they are in reality, lost. What they were worshipping or attempting was nothing more than their own human creations. The true God is not gold, silver or stone fashioned by human hands, nor is the true God revealed by the human mind.

We do not create the true God through art, nor do we reveal the true God through dialogue. God has created all that exists and has revealed himself through his son, Jesus Christ. God is a part of us as we are a part of him.

This is why the church is so important in our lives. I do not believe that we can exist apart from the body of Christ. We could attempt to live without the church, but we would die emotionally and spiritually. We would be detached and we would live in a very lonely desperate world.

Christians belong to God because we belong to Jesus who said, "I am the vine and you are the branches."

In Jesus, there is no longing, no searching, no abandonment, no detachment.

In Jesus, our search has ended and our future has just begun!

Thanks, God!