I carefully scooped oatmeal into a white paper bowl and handed the bowl of warm oatmeal to an elderly man. I was working in dining hall up in a camp in Minnesota, and I always loved meal times. Our supervisor had to pick one or two people to help serve the food to the campers. During the second week, I was the only person who wanted to serve. So, I always got the chance of serving food to these people. This week was family camp, so I was serving to all sorts of people--adults, teenagers, toddlers, and even babies. It was organized in a cafeteria style. After a family was dismissed from their table, they would walk, one by one, and go through the line of food. Servers would stand in different spots and serve food. I earned the nickname 'Oatmeal Lady', since I served oatmeal every breakfast, and today was the same. After being asked by this elderly man if this was the real stuff or "a fake", I assured him that this was real oatmeal. Thanking me, he walked on his way. I glanced at the line ahead of me, preparing to scoop up more oatmeal, when I noticed something that made me laugh. A little boy, about 2 years old, stood by his mother, staring at the blueberry muffins sitting out on a tray. His mother, clearly distracted by putting bacon on his breakfast plate, didn't see what this little boy was doing, until it was too late. This blond haired boy stretched out his small hand, reached as much as he could, and finally grasped a warm muffin. Licking his lips, he took a huge bite out of the top of the muffin. Then, once only the top of the muffin was gone, he looked both ways (to make sure nobody was looking), and set the muffin back on the tray. This clearly already eaten out of muffin sat pitifully on the tray, definitely not an appealing sight to any hungry campers. Then, taking another muffin, the boy did the same thing. After his second muffin only had the top bitten off, he put it back. By this time, his whole face was light up with a smile bigger than a house. Grabbing for yet a third muffin, he opened his mouth for a huge bite. But this time, before he could feel the crumbly muffin reach his mouth, his mother realized what he was doing. Quickly snatching up the muffin, she set it back on the tray. Then, horrified by what her son had done, she scolded him lightly. Picking up the two muffins he took a bite out of, she set them on his plate, determined that he would eat even the less tasty bits of the muffin.
Isn't this what we're like in our Christian life? It sounds great to call ourselves Christians! But...we don't exactly what to live like Christians. Living for Jesus every single day of our lives? Not like, once a month? Maybe even once a week, on Sundays? So instead we decide that, we'll just take the best part. Just like the little boy biting into a muffin, he just wanted the yummy part. We often just want the title 'Christian', and leave the living for Jesus bit to someone else. Might be appealing to someone else, right?
There's no point to even calling yourself a Christian if you only want the title. If your only reason for calling yourself a Christian, is because it sounds impressive to other people, don't even bother calling yourself a Christian. We can't decide that we want to be called a Christian, but not live like one. If that little boy had tasted the bottom of those two muffins, if he had given them a chance, maybe he would have realized that it was better than he ever thought possible.
Kayla Joy
