If my husband, who is 10 years older than I am, ever dies, I’m dead. Of course, he’s going to die. Of course, I’m going to die. We’re all going to die. (It’s true.)
But if he dies first, I’ll find myself in a stone-age life, unable to operate even the simplest of light switches. You see, my husband is a tech-head (nerd?).
We live in a small condo, and in every room, there is at least one Alexa device. And many rooms have two or three. In my living room, dining room, kitchen combo (about 800 square feet), we have three Alexa devices and one Google. We also have an Alexa clock on the wall that shows how many minutes remain on our timer. In our guest bedroom/my office, we have one, and in our master bedroom, we have two.
When I look at my Alexa app, I see “22 devices discovered.” That includes every light switch in our house, most plugs, our thermostat, and who knows what else. I don’t.
And there are commands for these devices running out our ears. “Turn on ceiling” (in the kitchen). “Turn on island” (in the kitchen). “Turn on kitchen” (all those devices).”
Just like Jesus
I won’t bore you with the rest; you get the picture.
I let him do it. It’s his thing. He loves it. The other day, he changed our WiFi password to be more complex. And thus, he spent two days reconfiguring these 22 devices. No simple solution existed.
I would have pulled out every hair in my head in frustration. He was floating around the house with a smile. He didn’t even take his nap that day.
The National Security Agency likely knows every tedious aspect of our lives. (Just like Jesus.)
So you see, I need my husband like I need Jesus. I rely on him to get me out of technical fixes like I should rely on Jesus to get me out of life fixes. I depend on him to know the secret code like I should rely on Jesus to BE the secret code.
Jesus came to earth, became human for people like me. And people like Doubting Thomas. We need examples. We need to see and touch to believe. I call us The Literals.
So, while I can’t see Alexa turn off every light in the house with the “Lights out” command when we climb into bed each night, she’s there; she does it.
If I believe in the unseen work of Alexa (even though I don’t understand it), I can believe that Jesus (“the light of the world”) is working to make the world a brighter place.
“Hey, Jesus, lights on!”
Terri Lackey is director for communication for Women of the ELCA.
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