The Encourager
As we embark upon another holiday season, I thought it would be appropriate to discuss the greatest gift of Christmas (other than Jesus) …fruitcake. For those of you unfamiliar with this “cake,” imagine a meatloaf-sized mashup of fruits, nuts, and spices baked together so densely that it can persist for twenty-five years if packed correctly. Its unaesthetic look is only rivaled by its eclectic taste which alternates between sweet, savory, and confusing. It is such an odd and unappetizing treat that famed talk show host Johnny Carson once quipped, “The worst Christmas gift is fruitcake. There is only one fruitcake in the entire world, and people keep sending it to each other.”
So why am I writing about fruitcakes? Well, for one, it’s a not-so-subtle reminder to save your fruitcakes for someone else more deserving (like Cleve or Frank, who LOVE them). And secondly, because there’s a spiritual lesson in them if you look hard enough. For our Sunday night home groups, we’ve been looking at the twelve disciples, and it is amazing that Jesus chose this ragtag bunch. They were misfits, unworthy, and unqualified men who were best characterized by their “ordinariness.” They didn’t make sense together, but somehow, by the grace of God, these men were able to “turn the world upside down” (Acts 17:6).
You see, God works in mysterious ways. He chooses the foolish things to shame the wise and the weak things to shame the strong (1 Cor. 1:27). Rationally speaking, the teaming of the disciples shouldn’t have worked. They were too dissimilar and too unremarkable. It didn’t make sense. But to God it did, and we are all living proof of that. The same goes for us at Eastmont. We may not be impressive individually, but as a church, God has great plans for us. So that brings me back to a fruitcake, it too is a random assortment of ingreients that together becomes…ah actually never mind, fruitcakes are just plain bad.