A Big Ugly Statue

Have you seen the Satanic Temple's goat statue? Next to the goat-headed figure are two children, a boy and a girl, looking up at the beast lovingly. It's not only blasphemous, it's hideous. 

I've seen pictures of Hindu gods, African spirit masks, totems and talismans that are equally frightening and demonic looking. 

Those to us are blatant, obviously evil (like the goat-headed, man-made stonework I first mentioned). We picture the devil also that way: obvious, ugly, monsterous. That is his true nature but the Bible says he parades like an "angel of light"; it describes him as one of the most beautiful in God's creation. Beautiful and full of death and destruction.

I say all this to remind us that the devil is not always obvious. Not all idols are ugly. We may look at the cringe-worthy ones and think "There's no way I'm worshipping that thing. You'd have to be a fool to bow down to something like that." 

What about idols that look good, that make us feel good? I'm talking about the things in our lives that aren't made of stone that don't have big scary facades. What takes up all our time and energy and resources? What do we spend the most time thinking about, working towards, living for? What do we obsess over? Is it a thing? A sport? Another person? Is it ourselves? 

An idol is anything we put before God--before his opinion, before his commands, before His Word. And it probably won't be as obvious as a big ugly statue.