Preserved by Being Poked

I’m going to do a fun activity with this orange—do you want to help me? Sure, you say. I like oranges! Are we going to eat it? Wait a moment—I have a question to ask you first. Do you have a favorite toy, a new book, or special clothes that you like very much? Yes? Then you want to preserve it from getting ruined, don’t you? Well, that’s exactly what I want to do with this orange. I want to keep it safe so that we can enjoy it for a long, long time.

How are you going to do that? you ask. Oranges get moldy after awhile. You are right. If we left this orange to sit on the counter, or even in the refrigerator, it would start to rot. We need to do something to keep this orange from rotting. That’s why I have this fork. Do you like to be poked? I don’t either. But we are going to poke holes into the orange and fill them up with these little cloves. Like this—see, I made four holes with the fork tines and now I’ll press the cloves into them so just their round tops are showing. Ready to help?

Sure! you say, taking the fork. Where do I poke the holes? All over! You see, cloves are a spice that will preserve the orange from spoiling. So if we do only one side, the other side will rot? you ask. That’s right, so let’s not give up part way. Poke, press. Poke, press. Here’s a spot you missed—we don’t want the orange to get rotten here, do we? Poke, press. It looks sort of pretty, like it is covered with little flowers, you say. That’s true. And when we are done, we will dust it all over with more spices and hang it with a ribbon to dry. When we preserve an orange like this, it is called a “pomander ball” and it makes a nice scent wherever you hang it.

You know, there is a Bible verse we can learn while we work. Psalm 145:20 says, “The LORD preserveth all them that love him.” As we can see with the orange, being preserved often doesn’t feel very comfortable. It feels like pokes and problems in our lives. But if we love the LORD more than ourselves, we will realize that the pokes are the places where God can fill us with His sweet spices. What kind of “cloves” do you think God will put in our hearts to preserve us from “bad attitude rot”? Patience and love? you say. Yes, indeed! We all like to be around people with patience and love, gentleness and kindness. It is like a sweet smell, isn’t it? But how can we get to be people like that? By being left alone to please ourselves? No, you say. That would make us spoiled rotten. Right! So instead, God must let the pokes come—like someone ruining your plans, taking your things, telling you to do something that you don’t feel like doing… and then, guess what? You have a hole inside you and you feel upset. Like this orange right here. The juice is oozing out of the holes you just made. What should we do? Fill it with cloves! you say. Yes, and that’s exactly what God can do with our problems.

So if we love the Lord, what will we do when we get poked by a problem? Ask God for help to have a good attitude, you say. Yes, and when His goodness fills our hearts, it will keep us sweet, just like this orange. Hmmm, it smells good! Can I hang it up? you ask. Yes, let’s hang it where we will remember how God can preserve us from selfishness rot!