If you don’t like to dine alone, some restaurants in Japan are providing an alternative.  At these restaurants, you can dine with a Moomin.

What is a Moomin?  They originated in Finland, but they are also popular in Japan.  Mitchell Dillon provides a description: “Moomins are a family of white, anime, hippo-like characters created by Finnish illustrator and writer Tove Jansson.  They’ve been around for decades, and have increased in popularity around the world, especially in anime-obsessed Japan, where Moomin House Cafes are catering to the solitary diner.”

At one of these restaurants, you can sit with a giant, plush toy Moomin so you don’t have to be by yourself. *

Will sitting with a big, cute, plush Moomin really satisfy one’s need for companionship?

The truth is: even dining with real people doesn’t satisfy our greatest needs.

Jesus encountered a Samaritan woman at a well outside of Sychar in the middle of the day.  She was shocked when Jesus, a Jew, asked her for a drink of water from the well, because Jews did not associate with Samaritans at that time (John 4).  The woman experienced greater shock when Jesus, a complete stranger, told her about her marital situation: she had been married five times and was now living with a man (John 4:16-18).  Apparently, this woman had been trying to quench her thirst for companionship and fulfillment in relationships with men.  But she wasn’t fulfilled.  Now, perhaps so she can avoid people and their snide comments, she has come in the heat of the day to draw water.  Jesus offers her living water.  If she will accept the living water that He offers, she will never thirst again (John 4:13-15).  What Jesus is offering is a saving relationship with God that is the only thing that can satisfy the deep longings of the human heart.

Just as He did to some lukewarm Christians, Jesus offers a wonderful invitation: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.  If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me” (Revelation 3:20).  He is offering intimate, fulfilling, eternal communion that satisfies our deepest longings forever.

Our sins separate us from God (Isaiah 59:1-2).  But God loves us so much that He gave His one and only Son to die on the cross for our sins (John 3:16; Romans 5:8).  Through Jesus, we can have salvation, deep and abiding fellowship with God, and eternal life (Romans 6:23).

Jesus saves and abides with those who place their faith and trust in Him (Acts 16:30-31), turn from their sins in repentance (Acts 17:30-31), confess Him before men (Romans 10:9-10), and are baptized (immersed) into Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38).  He will continue to cleanse from sin and abide with those who continue to walk in the light of His Word (1 John 1:7-9).

Dining with a Moomin can be a unique and even enjoyable experience.  The same can be said for dining with a person.  But only Jesus can quench our deepest longings for salvation, abiding love, and eternal fellowship.  Mitchell Dillon astutely wrote: “A Moomin might fill an empty seat, but only Jesus can fill an empty heart.”

Won’t YOU “open the door” to Him through your trusting obedience?

-- David A. Sargent

* Information gleaned from “The Anti-Loneliness Café” by Mitchell Dillon in www.freesermonillustrations.com and “Moomin, Japan's 'anti-loneliness' cafe, goes viral” by Francis Cha of CNN, www.cnn.com.

David A. Sargent, Minister

Church of Christ at Creekwood 
1901 Schillinger Rd. S.
Mobile, Alabama  36695

Archived issues of Living Water can be viewed and accessed from our website at: www.creekwoodcc.org