Cheap Imitations

My wife and I have been talking about some things that have troubled us the last few weeks. While I am not as bothered as she is on the topic we discussed, mostly because I am around it all the time, she was frustrated and said to her it felt like people were putting more layers of obfuscation between her and them. As I have gone on my morning bike rides, this week and last, I am startled at just how far satan will go to attempt to replace God's natural plan and design in favor of a cheap imitation of his work.
We are not talking like a good fake, we are talking like the fake Louie Vitton handbag that is not the right color and not even made out of leather, it's made out of plastic. It's fake, and clearly fake,

You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.
John 8:44

The devil cannot produce anything on his own, he's not human and doesn't have the breath of life in him... he's a created being, full of jealousy and pride. So since he cannot create anything, he had to come up with some alternative.

Chasing Family, not Fabrication

Way back in Genesis 2, God said "It's not good that man is alone." (v.18). So He (God) created Eve as the partner and co-laborer with Adam. At the time, God made Eve as a reflection of Adam that filled the voids Adam couldn't. The original plan was Adam and Eve, naked in the Garden, producing mankind. However, it didn't work out like that. Eve was deceived, Adam sinned (missed the mark), and through Adam all the world began to become corrupted. As early as Genesis 6, we see the world corrupted beyond the point where God wanted to tolerate it, so he destroyed the world, but humanity persisted in its sin. The natural plan of God was for Man and Woman to come together forever in marriage and produce children. That's the plan. But there has been a huge push back on that idea that has become increasingly pushed in the later 20th and 21st Centuries. We have seen a rise in homosexuality, gender dysforia, and a strong, concerted effots to destroy the original plan. As more and more have destroyed the family in favor of cheap fabrications, including marriage-less family units, same sex-marriages, Transgender unions, and the like. That's not what God wanted and it's a sin to pursue such things. As it is also sin to engage in extra-marital affairs, fornication, self-gratification, and all other forms of sexual immorality.
Each of these things is a cheap copy of what Man and Woman working together can accomplish when they rely on Jesus.

Chasing Relationships, not Reels

Social media plays a HUGE part of our cultural and personal lives. We can see, now, whole industries have sprung up. I wonder if Tom from Myspace ever invisioned that his platform would launch the next digital revolution? This is really what my wife was referring to in our discussions. This kind of distancing we have seen, in America at least, in favor of hands-off, digital, fake relationships. We put ourselves out there online in an effort to "share ourselves." In the process, we have, in some cases deliberately, put up more facades than we had before and are less and less connected than we were in the past. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter(X), LinkedIn, all have a purpose, but when we replace meaningful, face to face interactions we lose a ton. The bible says in Matthew 28 to go into ALL the world and preach the good news. It doesn't say to go into all the apps and scramble for followers. It doesn't say post a lit video to get content. Relationship is at the heart of what we do as believers and is at the heart of how God made us. When we chase after wrong relationships or are caught in them, that's a risk. Sure, but that doesn't mean we stop trying.

We have said over and over to our kids, "we do this so that you can be better than we are." We should never stop trying to be more like Jesus and be better than our parents were with us. If we feel unknown, we should seek to know others. That's the solution to this, not isolating ourselves in our houses or apartments and complaining about it.