Sometimes Life is Like a Coconut...

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

As you can tell by the title of this post it will be a very metaphorical one, the reason simply being because life is very much unlike a hairy fruit in many ways. Now, I didn't name it that so I could tell you all of the ways that life is unlike coconuts but to share a little revelation as to why it can be.

I was thinking the other day about all of the things that they say life is like: toilet paper, rivers, a box of chocolates. And those metaphors are all fine and dandy but I decided to mix it up a little. Sometimes, life is like a coconut. You can't tell what it is like on the inside, because all that you are seeing is external. There is a story to back up my new saying, it goes like this:

My brother loves coconuts! What's not to love really? Anyhow, we walked into the store one day and saw a big box FULL of coconuts. Soren, my brother, went crazy, begging for a coconut. My mom finally caved, even though we don't own anything that can open coconuts easily, or because some people in my family do not like coconuts. But that day we left the store with a coconut in our cart. It sat on our table for days, my mom not wanting to open it up in fear that it would be to hard considering we don't own an ice pick. One day Soren finally begged hard enough and mom went at it with a knife. She took the knife, hammered as hard as she could on the coconut's eye, and it still didn't crack. Finally it resulted in her sawing it open with a knife that was very nearly ruined afterwards. After much effort the fruit was open. Yay! It smelled great, looked fine and we all were craving some. I went to serving a little of the meat to everyone and we were met with a bitter surprise. It was actually more of a rotten surprise. You guessed it, the coconut was totally rotten. It had pink fuzz growing inside of it and it felt really slimy. So the much awaited coconut ended up in the trash.

What's the moral of the story? Well that, sometimes, life is like a coconut. It looks great on the outside! It is super desirable and appealing, you think it is all dandy and await the day where you will take the time and effort to peer in, expecting to be pleased. But what if it's gross? What if we take the time, and with God's help, look deep into ourselves and find mold and gunk in our souls? Unlike coconuts, we cannot go to the store and buy a new life. So what happens? We need to fix it. We need to put our lives in shape, take out all that which is gross and unappealing. There is good news, we can. We can fix up our lives and make them great again. God gives us the tools to do so. We can dig into our souls and rip out that which is bad, not only that we can keep it out, with God's help. Lent is a great time to do this, to look inside of our souls and ask for God to help us fix it up. That way, when we look inside again, we get to delight in the goodness of our lives and souls.

Peace and love in Christ,

Alyse