The Wrong Kind of Reliability

The movie A Christmas Story (directed by Bob Clark [MGM, 1983]) features, among other things, a dad who is continually at war with his furnace, which is constantly breaking down. Throughout the entire movie, the father is humorously battling the furnace while smoke billows up into the living room from the basement. It is an illustration of the wrong kind of reliability. None of us want to find ourselves in a situation where we can always count on someone or something to let us down, like the furnace always disappoints the family. Reliability is important to us. If we buy a car, we want to know it isn’t a lemon but will work well for a long time. We have the same feeling about appliances, or even relationships with people. We want to know we can count on them. God is faithful in his plan of redemption to his people, and as a faithful God, he is worthy of our praise.