Stealing Packages - The Glitter Bomb

Have you seen this video: Package Thief vs Glitter Bomb Trap?  

A man has a package delivered to his house, and it's stolen from his porch.  Then he spends 6 months engineering the ultimate revenge box so he can "repay" people who steal other people's packages.

The Glitter Bomb Trap is ingeni0us.  The box looks like a shipped package, but includes a GPS, a glitter bomb, "fart" spray, and cameras.  And all the parts are programmed to activate when the package is stolen, so the thief gets what's coming to him.

My first thought was, "This is really cool.  Thieves should be punished."

But God's Word...it wouldn't let me be comfortable with that thought. 

Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay...if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head."  Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.  Romans 12:19-21

So I tried to think of a package that would make a thief feel guilty, and at the same time, would touch the thief's heart and show real love and real forgiveness.  That package, the package that could overcome evil with good, would be an engineering marvel.

Why do people steal?  The simplest reason is - people are longing for satisfaction, and that box might contain something that satisfies them in this life, if even for a moment.

But God's Word tells me that, the things of this life, they never fully satisfy.  

All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.  Ecclesiastes 1:8

And the answer - the perfect package that can overcome evil with good - it's God's Word.

God's Word first comes to me as God's Law, and it convicts me of my sin.

I'm the one who's never satisfied.  I'm the guilty one who steals the package, and I deserve the glitter, the "fart" spray, eternal damnation.

I'm also the guilty one, who seeks vengeance when my "package" is stolen. 

And that perfect package containing God's Law, it also contains the Good News, the Gospel of Jesus, His death, His resurrection, His forgiveness and love...for me.

I don't need to hold onto the package; people don't need to steal it.  It's there for free, in abundance.

I pray to remember that.  I pray to remember that for myself, when I'm not satisfied with things in this life and am looking for fulfillment in things of this world.  And, I pray to remember to give that gospel to others, others who are hurting, who hurt me, and are looking for something. 

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.           Romans 8:1-4