Everyone in my family loves my popcorn. The other day when I was making it I had these thoughts about popcorn and us.
A kernel starts off hard & rather insignificant, looking like every other kernel of corn in the bag. And basically it could stay like that until it rots.
BUT, when you take that kernel of corn and apply a lot of heat to it, it erupts into a unique and tasty morsel with a purpose. It doesn't look anything like it did before it popped. And you can now do all sorts of delicious things with it. You can enjoy it just as it is, or flavor it with an abundance of toppings and coatings to make it even more enjoyable. You can take a bunch of it and make many various designs and adaptations. (I'm sure there a few thoughts I'm missing so feel free to add them in a response.)
Now, it's not too difficult to figure out the correlation between a kernel of popcorn & us! We all start out basically like everyone else, and unless something special & dramatic happens to us, we end up rather hard of heart until the day we die.
BUT, if we encounter the heat of the Living Lord, which is quite special & dramatic, we erupt into a unique individual with a special purpose. We don't look or act anything like we once did. And once transformed, the Holy Spirit 'flavors' us to God's liking, and shapes us to His design.
I hope you experience the heat of Christ in 2009 and explode into the unique individual God has always intended for you to become, fully flavored by the Holy Spirit.
PJ
