Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Pink Lemonade



You know the saying, “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade,” right? I like that saying…a lot! It’s probably because I do enjoy a nice glass of lemonade. Growing up in Panama, we had a couple of lemon trees in the backyard, and often, I would be sent to pick up lemons to make lemonade. If there wasn’t anything else to drink, there was always fresh lemonade at home. So I’d have to make my little excursion to the outdoors in search of lemons at least twice a week or so.

While I enjoyed the refreshing beverage; however, I did not like the picking up of the lemons. I didn’t like it because the branches were full of thorns. I had to be very careful. We had a long stick with a hook on the end that we’d use, but that stick had a habit of disappearing and once in a while I’d end up having to grab the lemons with my bare hands. The lemons were tiny so I needed a lot of them to make a pitcher. Of course I would concentrate first on the lemons already on the ground, but many of them were too bruised and rotten, so inevitably, I’d have to venture into the branches with my hand if I were to return with enough lemons to make the drink. It’s funny, though, that back then, I never hear of the saying or of any reference to lemons being a bad thing. You know? Now that I think about it, there is another thing I never saw or tasted before I came to the US: pink lemonade.

Anyway, the whole symbolism does make sense. A lemon by itself is not the most delicious of fruits. Across America, not many kids have a lemon in their lunch boxes as their fruit of choice to eat with their sandwiches. Besides, not many people actually want to stick their hand in a tree full of thorns to get them (of course here in America we don’t have to do that since, as we all know, lemons come from the produce isle at the grocery store.)

Another thing about lemons is that they are a fruit that require processing in order to be appreciated. They kind of have to be mixed with other things. It is the combination of flavors and textures what makes the particularly sour taste of lemons, particularly…tasty! At any rate, I see how not many people would want life to give them lemons, especially when we have such a wide range of sweetly delicious fruits to choose from. It takes time to appreciate a lemon. There’s no instant gratification when you get one. It takes work and other ingredients…and we would probably prefer not to have to go through all that if we could choose.

But many times we just can’t…hence the saying, right? When you get them…well…deal with it. Stop whining and make the darn lemonade!

It’s a piece of popular wisdom that refers to the trials that we will get in this life, which we will get…and how to handle them.

Well, personally, I don’t really mind lemons because I love lemonade! God has given me a keen taste for it (which is probably why I end up with lemons so often.) You know what I REALLY like? Pink Lemonade! Since I first tried it, I decided lemonade was not lemonade unless it was pink! So, while thinking about all these I’ve decided that from now on, I’d like to see trials as a tall glass of cold lemonade, handed to me by the hands of a loving God who is unfolding a perfect plan in my life. This perfect plan includes the manifestation of God’s unique kind of love…a love in which trials become blessings, and lemons become lemonade…of course, in my case, it will be pink lemonade!

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