I sat in church watching a small child eat a box of Animal Crackers. I must confess I wish he had offered me one. I remember being his size and wishing I could have had Animal Crackers. I wasn’t allowed to eat in church. It would have been possible to have had them. They have been around that long. Actually, my parents could have had them when they were small. They have been around since 1902. I wonder how many billions of those little crackers (actually more like a cookie) have been consumed by grateful little kids. I remember trying to make a case for church consumption because they were made in the image of creatures God made on the sixth day of creation. My logic never prevailed. Maybe it was the circus pictured box.
I’m sure it never occurred to that little guy to offer me one. To him I must look like his vision of Methuselah. Surely old people couldn’t like Animal Crackers. They do. There are certain things for everyone. In I Corinthians 13 Paul speaks of putting away childish things. But he was speaking of ideas like being good enough to be saved and thinking we are His special children as opposed to everyone else. Those are childish ideas that need to be shed by mature minds that honestly look in the mirror and know they cannot be so, except for our dishonest conceit. Paul wasn’t speaking of some special childhood things. Dare I confess that I still have my teddy bear?
One evening I entered a hospital room to visit an old friend who wasn’t going to come home again. His wife was feeding him from a half-gallon container of Breyers vanilla ice cream. How grand!
Written by Roger Bothwell on December 30, 2011
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org