Last night, my sister invited my family, and a small army of friends over to her home for a lovely fondue party. (She makes up in entertaining where I've severely slacked over the last few years, but I digress). In case you couldn't tell from the picture, my son
likes, adores, craves, drinks by the gallon, is fond of, LOVES chocolate. If I would allow him, he would eat chocolate all day, every day. So, this fondue party was right up his alley. He parked his little self directly in front of the fondue fountain and made himself at home. He speared marshmallows, strawberries, pineapples with his toothpick and dunked them one by one into the fondue fountain. He was thoroughly enjoying himself, and making quite a mess. At one point, he grabbed a HUGE strawberry (which is another favorite food that he will eat by the truckload). He took that enormous strawberry and made sure it got as much chocolate on it as possible. Then, he proceeded to shove almost the whole thing in his mouth. It was so big that part of it stuck outside his mouth, dripping chocolate all down his chin, shirt, and the floor. Needless to say, the 10 people who were in the kitchen were getting quite the chuckle out of just how much he enjoyed the chocolate strawberry. I finally gave up on his shirt (it was white, big mistake on my part) and just took it off. I put it close to my purse, which was in the other room, and started chatting with a few friends who were in that room leaving my son to his very capable devices. A few minutes later, my shirtless, sweet, chocolate-covered little boy came to me. In a sad voice, he said, "Mommy, I don't want those people to laugh at me." I reassured him that they weren't laughing at him, but were just enjoying how much he was loving the chocolate. I walked back into the kitchen with him and noticed that everyone tried their best to keep a straight face. He was comforted, went back to the fountain and ate until his belly was full of joy.
In Jeremiah 15:
16 we read, "Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart..." His words bring joy when we are feasting on them! I've compared my eating (studying) of the scriptures to how my son was getting his chocolate fix. Do I devour it, loving every minute, and find extreme joy in it? Or do I nibble, eating only what's necessary to survive or do I decline it all together thinking I'll make time for it later (going the anorexic route)? Honestly, I jump between the categories, sometimes devouring, sometimes nibbling, and sometimes thinking, "Hmm, when was the last time I read His words?" As Christians, we may find that we are made fun of or laughed at if we read His words, as my son perceived he was being laughed at while devouring his chocolate treasures. It's hard, but if we seek out our Father as my son sought me, He will comfort us. He will always bring us to the sweet things because He loves us. He knows what will bring us the ultimate joy and His word will bring us to it.
