Pulpy Blueberries

Cereal excites me.  And nope, it’s not a sugar high.  I just like good cereal – especially those kinds that come with nuts, or “clusters”, or whole grains.  The other day I was more thrilled about a bowl of cereal than I probably should be.  Because I had fresh blueberries – big, plump, juicy ones – to put into the bowl.  That’s a whole other level of cereal right there.

So I pulled out the package and rinsed them off.  I popped a few into my mouth straight out of the strainer.  And I must have had the strangest look on my face.  Sure, a couple of them were perfect – tasty, a little tart and a little sweet – just what I was expecting.  But a couple of them might as well have been pencil erasers.  I don’t chew many pencil erasers but I’m assuming they don’t have much flavor. 

So I faced a dilemma.  Obviously I couldn’t test the whole batch.  Should I just throw a bunch in and hope that enough of them were tasty to overshadow the pulpy ones?  Should I just give up on the whole container?  What kind of an impact would they make on my cereal?

These questions all posed more thought that I was willing to process on an early morning before my second cup of coffee.  So I went for it!  I sprinkled about a half cup of blueberries on the cereal and poured the milk.  And you know what?  It was good!   Sure there were a few bites with more mush than taste.  But on the whole the other berries worked extra hard and had so much flavor that I had a delightful, tasty breakfast.

If you were to look in the church door at “us” on a Sunday morning, you’d find a lot of differences in believers.  But you’d find a lot of similarities too.  We’d all be singing, bowing our heads during prayer, listening to the message and smiling at one another.  

If you followed us home and throughout our week, the resemblance would continue.  You’d see us hold the door open for the person behind us, smile at strangers, yield at stop signs. But on closer inspection, you would notice some of us laughing, hugging, listening, crying…living!  Enjoying life moment-by-moment and making it interesting and appealing, too.  

Because shouldn’t other people want what we have?  Matthew tells us we are to be salt and light.  But could we please just not be pulpy?

Matthew 5:13,14; Colossians 4:6
You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no er good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.  You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden…Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.