Where is the core of my apple?
In this photo, I had not found the core and yet I had already eaten half way through the apple!
While my son was serving on the mission field in Baja California, Mexico, he shared a great idea with me about eating apples from a different angle! When you eat an apple from the bottom up or from the top down, it is as if the apple’s core doesn’t even exist!
Looking back over my years of eating apples, I can almost feel guilty for how much of the apple I have shamelessly wasted! Now I can truly honor the apple: eat all of it – including the core! It’s amazing! Try it out some time.
Uh-oh…here it comes… Yes, that’s right…I believe there is a spiritual message hidden here.
It’s all about perspective. So often, when we know we are facing a great difficulty, we naturally do everything we can to avoid that situation. In fact, we could actually make it a life-time habit of avoiding problem areas in our life. We “eat” all the stuff around it… and leave the unavoidable to the very end where the zesty taste of life loses its flavor.
On the other hand, if we “bite” right into the unsavory situation, we might be pleasantly surprised that it is just not as bad as what we had imagined it to be. Approaching life’s problems from the correct angle makes an amazing difference! Perhaps we could actually begin to love the very things for which we created a lifetime habit of avoidance if we would simply allow God to gift the eyes of our heart with a brand new perspective!
For the Passover Celebration (Exodus 12:1-13:10), the Israelites were to eat the “whole lamb” [for us, that’s Jesus, the Living and Abiding Word of God (John 1:1-3)] and they had to eat it WITH “bitter herbs” (Exo 12:8 NKJV). I’m sure there are many parts of a lamb that simply do not produce a mouth-watering experience, but the command which God gave them is that they had to eat all of it! “You shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire” (Exo 12:10 NKJV). In fact, what they couldn’t eat before the sun arose and morning came [that’s Jesus’ soon return] had to be burned with fire. No leftovers for the next day!
Lord, please fill me with fresh hunger to “eat” the whole Lamb — and to finish everything that You place on my plate. I don’t want to avoid eating any part. Thank You, dear Lord, for imparting to me a brand new perspective on life and for helping me to enjoy ALL You have for me! Amen.
P.S. As of December 2013, even my perspective on slicing apples has fundamentally changed! In the photo on the left there is a plate of apples that have been sliced horizontally. The star-shaped core in the centermost sections are just as edible as the apple’s skin. Thanks to my son, David Josiah, gone are my days of wasting apples!
