DayBreaks for 8/30/17: Cotton Candy & Sin

DayBreaks for 8/30/17: Cotton Candy & Sin

From the DayBreaks archive, 8/2007:

I love cotton candy.  I can’t say that I remember the very first time that I tasted it, but I have loved it ever since I was a tadpole.  Every year in our town, there is a fair.  We’re not the county seat or anything, but there is a fair each February.  (Yes, I know, February is a crazy time to have a fair – it is almost guaranteed to rain every day of the fair, and yet kids are out there riding the rides, getting drenched, etc.)  Do you know what I do?  I will go to the fair and pay the price of admission just in order to get a bag of cotton candy!  I like the pink kind – for some reason, the blue or green stuff just doesn’t seem right.

I have noticed something strange about cotton candy, and it’s a bit distressing, actually.  You get a whole big bunch of the stuff either on a paper handle, or in a plastic bag.  And while it is rather messy the way it attaches itself to your fingers after a few bites, the distressing thing about it is how quickly it disappears, and how little is really there.  I mean, here’s this big old bag full of delicious looking pink stuff, and when you bite into it, well…there’s just not much there.  When you think about it, you are paying mostly for air.  Even if you rip a big chunk of it off and squish it into your mouth, it’s like it immediately disappears into nothingness. 

Lots of show…not much substance.  Isn’t that just like sin?  It looks so good, it promises so much, we think it will quell the rumbling of our desires – but when you actually bite into it, it leaves you dissatisfied…and wanting more, in a strange way.  It never really fulfills you.  Why?  Because it is not true food, it is not the Bread of Life.  It is the bread of death, and how can that be satisfying?  Our very natures rebel against the end-game of death, so why do we consume so much that only contributes to our spiritual death?  Foolish, isn’t it?  It’s rather like paying for air and then wondering why we are still hungry.


Isaiah 55:2 (NIV) – Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.

PRAYER:  Feed us with your truth, Father.  Let us eat and be satisfied with the food that is everlasting.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.
