TAKE A LITTLE HONEY
Here’s another admission. I’m not much of a coffee drinker. As far as coffee goes, I guess I’m a “social drinker.” I mean I’ll drink a cup if others are drinking one. I don’t want to be the only one drinking a diet coke with a piece of pie.
Even when I do give in to drinking a cup of coffee, there have to be some modifications made. I want to put enough of some kind of sweetener and creamer in it that it doesn’t look or taste like coffee anymore. I have learned that honey makes a pretty good sweetener.
O.K, call me weird if you wish, but giving you this information made me think of a great story in the Old Testament. It’s in Genesis 43.
Here are the particulars. There was a terrible famine in Palestine. Jacob sent his sons to Egypt, where there was food to be purchased, for the second time. Of course, they did not know that the one from whom they were buying the food was their brother, Joseph, whom they had sold into bondage years before. But, that’s another story.
Jacob was wise enough to tell his sons to take some gifts with them to create goodwill. One of them was honey. Egypt wasn’t known for honey but Palestine was. It was the land that flowed with milk and honey. Honey was a fitting gift to take with them.
Honey contains lots of vitamins and minerals and has medical qualities, but most of all it’s just wonderfully sweet. That’s why I like it.
As we continue our journey, don’t we need to take a little honey with us, too? There’s more than enough meanness, name calling, prejudice, and hatred around.
Sarah Louise Delany was an African American educator and civil rights pioneer. She said, “Like is short, and it’s up to you to make it sweet.” I agree. Let’s be sure that sweetness is heard in the words we say and seen in the deeds we do.
Just writing these words makes me think of some people I know. It is so enjoyable to be around them. Like honey, they are wonderfully sweet. They illustrate the truthfulness of Solomon’s words in Proverbs 16:24: “Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the bones.”
I recently saw a picture of two little girls on the beach. One sweetly kissed the other on the shoulder. The caption read, “In a world where you can be anything, be kind.”
That’s in keeping with what Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:31-32: “Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away
from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.”
Amen!
Here’s my advice for all of us. Let’s be sure to take a little honey for our journey.
Here’s another admission. I’m not much of a coffee drinker. As far as coffee goes, I guess I’m a “social drinker.” I mean I’ll drink a cup if others are drinking one. I don’t want to be the only one drinking a diet coke with a piece of pie.
Even when I do give in to drinking a cup of coffee, there have to be some modifications made. I want to put enough of some kind of sweetener and creamer in it that it doesn’t look or taste like coffee anymore. I have learned that honey makes a pretty good sweetener.
O.K, call me weird if you wish, but giving you this information made me think of a great story in the Old Testament. It’s in Genesis 43.
Here are the particulars. There was a terrible famine in Palestine. Jacob sent his sons to Egypt, where there was food to be purchased, for the second time. Of course, they did not know that the one from whom they were buying the food was their brother, Joseph, whom they had sold into bondage years before. But, that’s another story.
Jacob was wise enough to tell his sons to take some gifts with them to create goodwill. One of them was honey. Egypt wasn’t known for honey but Palestine was. It was the land that flowed with milk and honey. Honey was a fitting gift to take with them.
Honey contains lots of vitamins and minerals and has medical qualities, but most of all it’s just wonderfully sweet. That’s why I like it.
As we continue our journey, don’t we need to take a little honey with us, too? There’s more than enough meanness, name calling, prejudice, and hatred around.
Sarah Louise Delany was an African American educator and civil rights pioneer. She said, “Like is short, and it’s up to you to make it sweet.” I agree. Let’s be sure that sweetness is heard in the words we say and seen in the deeds we do.
Just writing these words makes me think of some people I know. It is so enjoyable to be around them. Like honey, they are wonderfully sweet. They illustrate the truthfulness of Solomon’s words in Proverbs 16:24: “Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the bones.”
I recently saw a picture of two little girls on the beach. One sweetly kissed the other on the shoulder. The caption read, “In a world where you can be anything, be kind.”
That’s in keeping with what Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:31-32: “Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away
from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.”
Amen!
Here’s my advice for all of us. Let’s be sure to take a little honey for our journey.