8.12.08

Respect the Pouch

Ok, this is REALLY, REALLY GROSS. But, Maddy, you have to read it, because it actually does have a Bible message, believe it or not.
At AWANA, I’m a Cubbie Leader, and today we took the Cubbies on a trip to "Jerusalem", which was actually the room in our church where we stash the donuts. We pretended like we were very tired from our long journey and sat down at the table to eat a snack of Twinkies and Capri Sun Wild Cherry Juice Pouches.
Well, (here it comes), my Capri Sun tasted a little funny, and I didn’t know why. I checked the expiration date, but it wouldn’t go bad till April 2009. It wasn’t sweet, didn’t taste like typical cherry Capri Sun, and it had a sticky, goopy, sickly flavor and texture.
So, being the great friend that I am, I offered a drink to Hannah and asked her if she thought it was a little odd. She took a sip and said that it just wasn’t as sweet as hers.
Well, ok, it wasn’t sweet. But it was more than that, I knew it. This thing was – well, downright gross! And that was the first time I had ever thought that towards a sugary drink!
I looked at the pouch again and, to my horror, saw green crust around the place where you stick the straw! Yeah, like boogers, or intestinal fluid of some poor creature or something. Guts, maybe. Then, my stomach knotting, I looked into the straw and – EW!! There was gray goop with blackish specks all down through the straw, like silly putty or worm guts or something. I gagged and had visions of me waking up in the middle of the night, all alone in my bed, stomach heaving, gagging, puking, and from me pouring various body parts of rats, crickets, snakes, and whatever THAT was that was in that drink. Well, I’m happy to say I’m still alive here today to tell you my story of woe.
So, what does this have to do with God? I thought about this while awake at night, telling myself I was soon to be dead. And it came to me.
Maybe, just maybe, inside that disgusting pouch was somebody’s rotting heart! Yeah, like a toad’s or something. But I tried to think of it like your heart (well, not yours, everybody’s).
That pouch (in this case, your heart) started out as a sweet, wonderful, perfectly good thing. Then some bacteria (sin) got into there, only God knows how or what it was exactly. It was just a little bit of sin, a teensy, weensy bit. No harm there, right? Nobody’s perfect. But then that sin grew (yuck) and grew, becoming bigger and bigger. And bigger, nastier sins came in until there were millions and millions of little and big sins floating around in your heart. Gross, huh? It probably got pretty bad in there. If only you knew what was in your heart (or, in my case, in that pouch)! But you don’t know. So, then, God opened up your eyes, and you decided to take another look at yourself. Yeah, just look at you! But God (in this case, my mom) offered to give you a brand new, perfectly good heart (pouch) if you just threw yours away. That’s all you had to do. And, when you took that heart from God, you opened it up and used it. And it was sweet!

6 comments:

  1. Save the pouch, and maybe you can do the object lesson one Sunday in church.

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  2. Save it? It'd probably stink up the whole house, or come alive or something. *shudders*

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  3. Great illustration. - Bob

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  4. Whoa, it takes serious optimism to be able to see the bright side of that situation!!! Good going! No, really. No sarcasm intended. btw, that really isn't pic of you is it? You have to have seriously cool parents to let you have tattoo's at 13, LOL. Maybe I should introduce myself, huh? My name is Jayce (rhymes with grace, and it is NOT short for Jason, FYI), I am 14, I play bass/piano/sing in a small urban rock group. We are indy, more like a garage band, and basically just a few kids with a message. One of the BarlowGirls little cousins may be joining on the drums, which would be awesome!! He is so nice.
    I also dance and act, love indy clothes that promote free expression.
    I love the planet that my savior has given to me, and I try to help people be good stewards of it. Phew, I am done!!! Well, now you know the basics! I am one of Emma's friends, so that is how I found out about your blog.
    Well, Cheerio!
    Jayce

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  5. OMB! I am SO sorry for your woes but that makes for one hilarious story!
    p.s. I like your profile, except for one part. Semi-vegtarian?! Are you kidding me? I've NEVER seen your ONCE actually say you've enjoyed a veggie in your life! Haha! You crack me up. (though it did sound good with the rest of the profile):)

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  6. Whoa, awesome! When you marry Nick Jonas can I get invited?
    Puh-leeze!!! Pretty pretty please?!?! LOL, your Dad's blog is pretty neat!
    Is he a huge Simpsons fan like my Dad? Oh, man, the lines quoted!
    _Jayce

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