Magnets and computers have a love-hate relationship, especially old computers. Computers love magnets because they store most of their information in magnetic form. From ads to zip files, from the most mundane note to the fanciest video, from passwords to past history, magnetism is vital to keeping them safe and sound deep in the bowels of your computer.
Because information is stored magnetically, external magnets are very dangerous to computers. If it weren’t for strong shielding from outside magnetism, precious memories and expensive programs would be forever lost if a strong magnet was placed by your computer. Forget what you see on programs like CSI. If someone erased the files on your computer with a good, strong magnet, not even the trickiest forensic investigator would be able to recover those priceless jokes Uncle Vince emailed to you.
For computers, magnetic shielding is of vital importance. However, back in the old days, before CDs, DVDs and Flash Memory, magnets were even more dangerous, because data was transferred from one system to another with magnetic disks. They were very vulnerable to magnetic fields, because they were completely unprotected. If you carried a disk in your pocket and got too close to magnet, that was it, game over; your information would be absolutely and hopelessly lost. Floppy disks were very fragile things.
We humans are pretty vulnerable as well. Emotionally and spiritually speaking we have pretty thin skins. Hurtful words, unexpected downturns, even lousy weather can break through our defenses and drag us down. Largely unshielded from the worst and the best the world and others have to offer, we are pretty much equally open to both joy and misery.
You might think this is pretty unfair. Why doesn’t God protect us from pain and disappointment? Why aren’t we shielded from the vagaries of the weather and unpredictable relatives? Why can’t we just resist everything that might hurt us?
It all stems from being human, which means being created in God’s image. God suffers too. God gets hurt when we abandon Him. God gets hurt when we insult Him. God gets hurt when we defy Him. In other words, God is just as unshielded from the pain we cause Him as we are from the pain we feel. God’s cure for His suffering is found in the forgiveness Jesus brought about on the cross. God forgives us for hurting Him and then moves on. Our cure is found in the same place: Jesus calls us to forgive just as we are forgiven. We aren’t shielded from pain by the cross. Its forgiveness, however, is our greatest relief from whatever the world throws at us.
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