Forthright Magazine http://www.forthright.net Straight to the Cross Mike Greene comes on board, and Barbara Oliver has surgery today. Please read here and pray with us: http://www.forthright.net/editorial/mike_g_and_barbara.html COLUMN: FINAL PHASE The Wish Button by J. Randal Matheny, editor While I was in the padaria a few moments ago for a mid- morning piece of toast, the TV was tuned to some stupid cartoon from the U.S. or Japan. On my first glance, a child's finger hit a star-shaped wish button on a machine that looked like a copier. A picture of the latest wish was plopped face-down on the glass and with the touch of the wish button, out popped the desired item. If a Thomas Edison could invent one of these machines, he would be richer than Bill Gates. No more wishing on a star, we think technology can grant our wishes. A wish is a desire, often with a bit of wistfulness, that unfulfilled longing for something more. Not infrequently does it bleed into covetousness, rising from a discontent with what one has. Wishes fulfilled can create disaster, as Hezekiah discovered. From the pieces of the cartoon I caught between bites, the plot, if cartoons have plots, also showed the chaos that resulted when one tyke got his wishes granted. Maybe the cartoon wasn't so stupid after all. "Woe to those who wish for the day of the Lord! Why do you want the Lord's day of judgment to come? It will bring darkness, not light" (Amos 5:18). ---- Read this article online, write your reaction, and read others' comments as well. Click here: http://www.forthright.net/final_phase/the_wish_button.html You can help get the word out. Here's how: http://www.forthright.net/editorial/lend_a_hand.html