Jelly Beans

I love jelly beans and enjoy each and every flavor as I pop them in my mouth and savor their individual taste. You can find just about every flavor there is to offer, even popcorn.  My favorite is strawberry among the many sweet varieties to salivate over.  I like using jelly beans in story illustration and would like to share with you a perspective if we looked at one another as a jelly bean. We are all the same and yet so different in "flavor"...  each of us carry our own personal history and beliefs which has molded and shaped us.  You and I; we are different flavors or personalities and it is God's intention for us to blend and yet, remain individual in our own taste.

We could extend this illustration further into His Church... all the varied denominations under the umbrella of Christianity.   I think of them as flavors; we enjoy a certain flavor that a church denomination offers or in the instance of the "sheep of My Pasture".  These are ones who for personal reasons do not belong to a particular denomination, but follow the Shepherd, where there is no church building or structure. Nevertheless, they are part of the whole, which we refer to as His believers.  I have tasted different flavors in my spiritual journey and they all whisper of God, the unifier being Christ.  We are distinct in color and taste and should come together to be enjoyed in corporate gathering with one another.  That is my definition of ecumenical, which in simple terms, is unity among the Churches and in appreciation of one another as spiritual brothers and sisters.

 

These photos are an unlikely combination.  I poured some jelly beans into a champagne glass to explain visually an aspect of this unity.  The champagne glass itself would usually contain champagne, which is an effervescent wine - a noted symbol in celebration of quality, authenticity and excellence.  I will take these same words and apply them to all of God's jelly beans:
Quality - the attributes of God lie within you as a child of Light.  You are worthy in all the flavors that HE IS and not to be deemed worthless in your own eyes.
Authenticity - be yourself in your own flavor rather than try to be the flavor of someone else.  Be true to who you are as His special child of God.
Excellence - You are of great worth paid by a great price... the Cross of Christ.  Don't devalue yourself  for you are uniquely your own flavor to God.

There is even a jelly bean prayer.  Here is how it goes:  The NEW Jelly Bean Prayer by Lorelei Francis.....

RED  is for the blood He gave,

GREEN  is for the grass He made,

YELLOW  is for the sun so bright,

ORANGE  is for the edge of night.

BLACK, WHITE, BROWN, YELLOW and RED  is for the children He made

All of these colors receive the grace He gave,

PURPLE  is for the hour of sorrow

PINK  is for the new tomorrow.

Until later, my fellow jelly beans!  We'll meet again at The Turn-Up Patch on February 17.