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Themes False Gods THE BUDDHA AND THE BUDGIE Karen Connors sat on the floor in the living room. She flipped through the Encyclopedia book on her lap. "It has to be in here somewhere...bu...bud...," Karen mumbled to herself. "Is this it? Budgerigar...see parakeet." "Mom," she yelled, "is a parakeet a budgie?" "Yes," came the answer from the kitchen, "why do you ask?" "I am writing a story about Peter for homework." Peter chattered in his cage. When he heard his name, he always thought someone was speaking to him. "Oh Peter, you silly bird! I wasn't talking to you. I was talking about you." Karen laughed and went to the bookcase for the "P" book. As Karen was about to close the "B" book, she saw a picture of a huge statue on one of the pages. The statue was of a man, sitting cross-legged, hands folded on his lap and eyes closed. People were kneeling in front of the statue. "What's this?" Karen whispered as she started to read. She forgot her story about Peter.
It amazed Karen that people worshipped this statue. It was a bronze statue of a man named Buddha. Buddha lived over five hundred years before Jesus was born. Buddha did not believe in God. He thought he was his own god and in control of his own life. She discovered that Buddha became sick and died. Many people believed his teachings and started to worship him. After he died, they sent his bones throughout the eastern countries as sacred relics. Karen shuddered. "Mom," she yelled again, "do people worship Buddha's bones?" This time, Karen's mother came into the living room. "I thought you were writing about Peter. What do Buddha's bones have to do with budgies?" Peter chattered again. Karen laughed. "That does sound ridiculous doesn't it? I saw this picture of a statue and started reading about Buddha. The statue is not alive, but millions of people worship it. They even sent Buddha's bones to his followers. Why do people worship statues?" Mrs. Connors sat down beside her daughter. "It is a substitute for God. We were created with a desire to worship God. We were made for God's pleasure. In fact, the Bible says, "for thy pleasure, we are and were created" (Revelation 4:11). When sin entered the world in the Garden of Eden, our desire to please God was gone. Now, instead of naturally loving God, we naturally love sin. Obviously, God is not pleased or honored by our sin. Because we love sin, we turn away and fill our hearts with everything but God." "How then can we worship God?" Karen asked. Mrs. Connors was glad for this question. "The Son of God, the Lord Jesus, died on the cross to restore what sin had destroyed. He died to put sin away. When you trust in the Lord Jesus as Savior, God gives you a new nature that is able to worship Him. After all, shouldn't 'all men should honour the Son' (John 5:23)?" "Peter, maybe I'll write about worship instead of you. Worship is more important." Peter chattered and looked in his mirror. Karen smiled and grabbed her pen.
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Peter Orasuk
