Sunday Chocolate

"What's wrong, Dylan?" I blurted out, my patience run thin after unsuccessfully trying to sort through his incoherent mumbling.  They say I need to get my ears checked.  I insist they need to articulate.  

At any rate...we were on the way home from church, and he finally said, "I'm feeling low...like I have no purpose in life..." I just sighed deeply, in a futile effort to give my mind some time to search for the right words to say to encourage the child.  Thankfully, Dan took over and elaborated on how saying we have no purpose is almost blasphemous since the reason we exists is proof enough that we do have a purpose...a reason to be here.  Otherwise, we would simply just not be here.  He went on talking to Dylan about how the chief end of man is to glorify and worship God and other very inspired words.  As Dan spoke, I began to feel better myself (since I too was feeling low).  After a long pause...all I could say was: "I hope you were paying attention to your Dad.  I wish someone had spoken to me like that when I was your age.  Maybe I wouldn't be so messed up now...also, when we get home, let's just have a piece of chocolate.  As we well know, there's nothing chocolate can't cure!"  Those inspired words earned me an enthusiastic, "yeah."

I had finally said something everyone could agree upon.

Did you know that the Mayans considered chocolate to have medicinal powers? Cacao, the fruit from which chocolate is made was believed by this ancient civilization to be a gif from the gods.  The Aztecs also knew about the power of chocolate.  They even used cacao as currency.  The Spaniards introduced chocolate to Europe in the 1500s and the love-affair with this elixir exploded.  However, back then, only the elites had access to it.  Luckily, now, for a couple of bucks we can pop this miracle food into our mouths and let it work its magic.

I don't know why sometimes we feel adrift.  I don't know why there are days when we just feel low.  Maybe it's the rain, the clouds, the cold, the disappointed hopes.  Maybe it's a chocolate deficiency...but sometimes we just need to be reminded of who we are...and to whom we belong.  And what best way to remember all these than to go to the ancient words that are always true.  Psalm 139 can offer us a bit of it as we read:

For you created my inmost being;

you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

your works are wonderful,

I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you

when I was made in the secret place,

when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed body;

all the days ordained for me were written in your book

before one of them came to be. (Psalm 139: 13-16)

This is our currency.  This is our medicinal elixir.  This is our energy drink.  This is our power food.  The Word of God is our source of truth and of worth...something not even chocolate can do.

"I feel better now..." Dylan said after spending some time at home watching a good movie and eating some chocolate.  I pray the biblically inspired words Dan spoke to him also had an impact in our young son's state of mind.  I hope he and all of us can Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. (Psalm 34: 8)