Joy is the theme for our final week of advent and I want to talk to you about chocolate, because for many chocolate seems to be synonymous with joy. But let’s see what else there is for us in this cocoa confection. It’s a packaged combo.
Mounds and Almond Joy have been rivals on the same team for more than 75 years. And since our theme’s namesake in its identity, I thought it was perfectly fitting.
This sweet gooey coconut center is encased in either milk chocolate or dark chocolate and the further distinction lies in the nutty crunch of the almonds.
I am pretty curious about these two creations because they are so similar and yet so drastically different, including their name. To me, the name of both should have been much more closely related.
For a comparison, I do like the dark chocolate better and apparently the ingredients in a Mounds is healthier (or at least more real product versus the milk chocolate confection of the Almond Joy and the partially hydrogenated oils with other made up crap in the there).
The only thing the Almond Joy really has going for it is the almond. And I think it would be better to grab a couple of Almonds out of a bag and pop those in my mouth while eating a Mounds. The debate is…there is no debate…Mounds for the win!
Although these two candies are not remotely specific to Christmas, they certainly help put us in the mindset to chew on the sweetness of the birth of the Son of God, what it meant for those alive at the time and what it means for you and mean, today.
Mary was visited by the angel and told what would be happening. Mary accepted and said, “Let’s do this!”
Over the next nine months and through the birth of her baby boy, there is excessive JOY depicted. This is to be expected with a new pregnancy and the arrival of an infant child. Strewn all over this story are situations with people expressing and experiencing great joy and repeatedly rejoicing. From Mary’s older cousin Elizabeth to Mary’s own song, to the angel’s words and the shepherds visit, to a wise old man and even a prophetess, there is no shortage of full exuberant JOY on visible display.
If you put an Almond Joy in front of me, I could probably resist. This bar has no power over me. Same with the Mounds. I am not that persuaded by that fake confection and temporary bliss. There is nothing compelling about that ‘joy’ set before me.
There is a joy, however, that does do something in me and has the capacity to empower me to endure and overcome. This is the joy before me that has kept me fighting for my marriage and staying when it would be easier to leave. It’s what has pushed me to be a better father and causes me to apologize when I screw up.
Furthermore, and most recently, this joy is what has made it possible for me to relinquish a large portion of control of RWOL and leave the state that has been home for 40 years, move my family over 1300 miles away to a place where we know NO ONE and have NEVER lived, and plant a church.
This is also the very joy that gave Mary the strength to let her baby go and be brutalized and berated, beaten and brought down to the grave with her watching. And it is what drove Jesus to and through the suffering of the cross.
Paul says it this way about Jesus: “For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame.” (Hebrews 12:2)
This Christmas, may you find this same lasting and empowering joy in the coming of Jesus. May you be overwhelmed by a feeling of contentment beyond your circumstances and a source of strength in the most difficult situations. May God fill you with a source of strength that nothing in the world can match and surpasses the temporal happiness of things in this world.
I am praying for you this Christmas and would love to hear from you now and in the future about all that God is doing in your life. Thanks for the greatest 7 years and can’t wait for the next 7!
#SeasonOfSweetness
#JOY
#SometimesYouFeelLikeANut
#RestoringWholenessOfLife
Brett
0 Comments