SPIRITUAL TRUTHS I’VE LEARNED AT THE GROCERY STORE

We can learn a lot about God anywhere we go; because God is there with us. But here are three spiritual truths I’ve learned at the grocery store.

1. All the good stuff is in plain sight.

Have you noticed that all grocery stores are generally laid out the same? Sure they might have the canned veggies on aisle three in one store and on aisle 14 in another. But basically, the milk, eggs, cheese, meat and produce are located on the walls of the store. Everything else is in the middle. It makes those essential items easy to find.

There’s no hunting up and down aisles for the food you need every week. No banging your shopping cart into displays; no wondering whether the olives are with the pickles in aisle 4 or the canned vegetables in aisle 12—or both, but not the ones you’re looking for. Rather, the essential food items that everyone needs every week, are all right there at the perimeter of the store for us to find. 

God is easy to find, too. His teachings are all in one Bible. His presence is in every part of nature. He’s not hiding or trying to make it hard for us to find Him. He’s even standing at the door of our heart, knocking. If we want to find Him, all we have to do is open the door and there He is.

2. All the junk is in the middle. 

On the other hand, where in the grocery store do you go to find the chips? The ice cream? The soda and cookies? Not on the perimeter of the store where the healthy stuff sits. Nope. You find the junk in the center of the store.  

Sort of like where the junk and sin is located in us. Inside our heads and inside our hearts, blackening us to the core. Fortunately, the more time we spend shopping the perimeter of the store and the less time down the junk aisles, the healthier we become. So it is that the more time we spend with Jesus, and the less time we spend focusing on our sinful selves, the healthier our souls become and the stronger our relationship with Jesus.

3. Paper, plastic or green? 

Once you’ve picked out your healthy food items on the store’s perimeter and have avoided the junk lurking in the middle, you’re faced with one last question. Do you want a paper bag? A plastic bag? Or did you bring your own?

It used to be that choosing plastic bags meant saving a tree. Hey, that’s a good idea.

Then plastic bags meant filling up our landfills. Hey, that’s a bad idea. 

Now we bring our own bags and use them again and again. They’re “green” even if they’re red or blue. Hey, that’s a good idea.

God gave us choice when He gave us free will. To choose Him over the things of man. And then He gave us scripture that can guide our lives daily, again and again, every day and for every circumstance. Scripture is like the reusable life guide that’s green.  

Hey, that’s a VERY good idea!

Next time you’re at the grocery store, look for God. He’s on every aisle.

 

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, thank you for being our ever present help. Thank you for guiding our lives and giving us free choice. Help us always choose you over the things of man. Amen.

WHAT ABOUT YOU? What one junk item lurks in the midst of the grocery store that keeps calling your name?