Back in the 1970’s there was a popular toy called “Silly Putty.” It came in a plastic egg container and smelled oddly of vanilla. It was a rubbery substance that could be easily stretched, molded, and shaped into whatever a child wanted it to be. It had properties of both a liquid and a solid. You could easily push a finger through it and slowly stretch it into a long ribbon, but if you slammed your fist on it, it felt as hard as cement, and if you pulled it suddenly it would snap in half like a solid. When you rolled it into a ball, it would bounce merrily across the room. Wonderful stuff.

One of the other properties that sold kids on the squishy toy was that it could be flattened onto the Sunday morning comics and the cartoon panels would imprint themselves onto the surface of the Silly Putty. Then, once you’d done that, you could wad it all back up, flatten it again, and make another cartoon panel.

Believe it or not, yours truly spent many happy hours playing with this tacky toy.

It occurs to me that there is an analogy to be made to Christians in an egg of silly putty.

Some Christians are hard and rigid. Their hearts are as impenetrable by the gospel as are people in the world (Matthew 13:19). When their sin is pointed out to them, they become defiant and haughtily refuse to repent.

Some Christians are too pliable. They are easily stretched and shaped by the world around them. Christians are supposed to resist the world’s shaping (2 Corinthians 6:14), but many do not. They are always stretching their necks to see “what is on the other side.”

Some Christians bear the image of people around them. We are supposed to be different, being light and salt to the world (Matthew 5:13-14). Unfortunately, some Christians are Christians in name only. Evidence of their conversion is quite hard to see.

Some Christians snap too easily. Yet, the word of God says we are to be temperate in all things, and not given to wrath (Titus 1:7-8). How sad it is when a Christian cannot temper his anger and hold his tongue.

Some Christians smell oddly of vanilla. Okay, there is no problem with this one. But the rest is bad.