For supper this evening I found one of those little boxes of Fruit Loops cereal in our pantry. It must have been left over from a time when the grandchildren visited. I can’t remember when I last had Fruit Loops, maybe in the 70’s. I didn’t know how long these particular Fruit Loops had waited to be eaten. They were so bad that after I spit out my first bite I gave them to the dog. Now this is a dog that will eat anything – I thought. She spit them out and walked away! Maybe someday I will try fresh Fruit Loops – maybe. I then looked for an expiration date but couldn’t find one. They must have been so old they were pre-expiration dates.
Each day I drive past a nursing home and I have wondered if the patients are past their expiration dates. It is then that I realize my perverseness. Surely there can never be an expiration date on a human being – at least in God’s eyes. Each of us is treasured long past when we have breathed our last earthly breath. Our personalities, our memories, our likes and dislikes are all stored in His parental brain waiting to be used once again on resurrection morning. The only thing about us He doesn’t remember is our sins. They have been blotted out. Acts 3:29
My mom taught me when shopping at the supermarket to take bread and milk from the back of the shelf. The older food is at the front so it will be sold first. I have also discovered it’s not a great idea to stop at a donut shop in the evening. How grand it is to know that we – you and I – don’t have expiration dates.
Written by Roger Bothwell on February 6, 2013
Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org