There is a saying that when life hands you a lemon, make lemonade. There is a more cynical and destructive version that says if life hands you a lemon, toss it back as hard as you can! As I was sitting at my dining room table eating breakfast this morning, I realized that God has gone and done BOTH and the tosser will never recover!
Back in the Garden of Eden, long after the infamous battle in heaven where God cast out satan and the 1/3rd of the angels who chose to follow him, another altercation occurred. The sore loser that he is, satan entered into a serpent and beguiled Eve into disobeying God. Apparently even at that time, without sin having entered the world yet, man was prone to following woman’s suggestions and Adam ate of the fruit too. Sin, with all its deathly consequences made a full and complete entrance into the world affecting not merely mankind’s view of themselves and each other, but affecting how nature functioned as well. When God handed down His punishment on the three for their actions, nature was turned against mankind. God was not pleased at this turn of events, but His patience being what it is, He held off on any further immediate action.
The lemon satan had tossed at God began to go bad and stink so terribly that God decided it was best to wipe mankind off the map and start again with a family headed by Noah. When the flood receded and Noah, his family and the animals could leave the ark, we began to see a hint of the lemonade God was about to make! First, a rainbow appeared in the sky. Secondly, seasons were added to the earth’s cycles. Animals were now granted for food.
It has been repeatedly proven in scientific communities and at the hands of careful and knowledgeable photographers, that no two snowflakes are EVER alike! When you consider how much snow falls all over the world, every year for the past 6,000 years, that’s A LOT of creativity! This came back to mind as I was staring at ice art on my window pane this morning. I’ve taken pictures of this occurring before and had to take pictures again. I love how asymmetrical yet symmetrical this particular display was. Leaves, sprays, grassy spires, all created out of freezing condensation on my window!
satan thought he was ruining God’s creation by introducing sin into the world. God turned around and saw an opportunity to show more of His creative nature and both thrill and inspire His prize creation, mankind, to be creative as well! Of course at the end of time God will take all the sin and death that satan introduced and toss it back at him so hard that he’ll suffer for the rest of eternity in the Lake of Fire. But until that day comes, God will continue to show Himself the bigger personality by creating absolutely stunning displays of lemonade, in every season around the world! Just pull out your favourite nature, landscape, or wildlife photo wall calendar as proof.
God is the originator of the response that teaches us to see opportunity in difficulty, to see positives in hard circumstances, and to use those positives and opportunities to make life better rather than getting bitter over it.
How are you emulating God’s response to lemons today?
