Walmart makes me feel weird. When I heard the hilarious Tim Hawkins crack a joke about how Walmart is like the bar scene in Star Wars, I got it. (And that’s sayin’ something. Ask anyone who knew me in college. I’m the one who started laughing 10 minutes after every joke.)
You all know I love to think and talk about Wemmicks. So one day I was walking up to the front door of Walmart, watching some odd looking human beings emerge from the building, I got to thinking about the Wemmicks. They are sort of odd, aren’t they?
Just take a good, hard look at Punchinello.
Once I was inside Walmart, now thinking about Wemmicks with all the force of my imagination, I noticed that everyone looked exactly like a Wemmick. And it hit me like a meatball from the sky. Walmart is the world. Almost literally.
My knee jerk reaction is to do what I’ve been conditioned to do, growing up in Suburbia, USA. Shudder. I don’t belong here. I’m better than those dumb, ugly old Wemmicks. I’ve got to get my apples, bananas, and box of Honey Nut Cheerios—and split. Pronto.
But this time was different. Because now that they were all Wemmicks, I saw them in a different light. A heavenly light. I noticed their eyes. I saw their faces. I looked into their souls. They were real. They had histories. They had mommies and daddies – some bad. Wicked, even. They had dreams. Broken dreams. Some cried themselves to sleep the night before. Some engaged in unspeakable sins. Some did both.
When God looks at the human beings walking through Walmart, He sees in each one individually—a masterpiece of artistry. The Wemmicks are only made of wood. Each one unique and special. How much more a human life with all of their physical complexities, including unique DNA, as well as their personality complexities, unique experiences and giftings?
Suddenly this whispered in my heart, “For God so loved the world…” and three things happened:
1. My heart broke.
2. I saw that I was one of them.
3. And I wanted to be.
This randomly reminds me of the video, Notes from the Tilt-a-Whirl. Here’s the trailer along with a couple of chapter excerpts. If you like the rush of catching your breath because something just literally touched your soul – then take a few moments to watch these.
Natalie, I have heard a few people I know, lately talking about how they don’t like to go to Walmart because they don’t like the way it “feels.” It doesn’t feel nice (I was just there yesterday). I am so glad that you shared about it being the “world”. We personally live in the country, surrounded by woods and our church (of 30 years) is in the city. We have seen a lot over the years..a lot of the “world”. I have noticed how easy it is to become “suburban” in our thinking, sometimes it is because the stark reality of the world feels like someone has pulled a rug out from underneath us. Sometimes, as you so accurately expressed it, we don’t want to be “one of them” and yet, we are the worst of them because we have truth, we can see and they are blind and all they have are lies or at best, half-truths. The Lord spoke to my heart yesterday, if you try to keep your life, you will lose it, but if you lose your life, you will gain it. (Matthew 16:24-26) Thank you for sharing your thoughts and speaking what is on the Lord’s heart.
Thank you for sharing the similarities in your experience!
“What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise:…” ~ Romans 3:9a and following.
Souls. Underneath it all, we are all eternal souls.
Interesting. I understand. It could really be anywere, couldn’t it? Not just a place like Walmart, I suppose. Sometimes,it can be hard to see when the outside is polished so well that the nicks and cracks are hard to see behind all the shine and gloss. But we are all broken. We all are in need of our Savior to put together that which we try for so long to fix on our own. And we can get so fucused on our own thing that it can make us blind to the hurt around us. I get what you are saying.
On an interesting side note: We are pretty much only Walmart people. Sometimes HyVee but without Walmart our family of 17 could not survive. When we moved from the cities ten years ago,I really did struggle with the switch from the well known suburb places to what was close by which was Walmart. Now, I love Walmart not only for the price but for the people. I REALLY do. I feel very comfortable there. There was a time not long ago where I felt more comfortable at Walmart than the Christ believing church we were going to. No need to polish. No need to be more than what Christ called me to be. I might not be distinguishable from the other Walmart Wemmiks except for the joy in my eyes and I hope people see my smiling.
Keep up the great posts!
Thank you for sharing this Tina. (((Hugs!)))