Do you need to be refreshed?
I was asked to make a cake for a funeral supper at my church. I made the cake and was about to put on the icing when I found out it had expired. I had to go to town anyway to shovel my brother’s sidewalk, so when I was done, I ran to the store. For fear of poisoning the people at the supper, and bought new icing for the cake. This icing had a current freshness date on the can. But while I was there I picked up two cakes and took them to the church a block away, instead of driving the 6 miles home, to ice the cake, 6 miles back to deliver the cake, then 6 miles back home for the evening. Call me lazy, but I didn’t want to take any chances with the old icing, and being out too long in this cold weather, and the family will devour the cake at home.
It is a running joke in my house to check the freshness dates on cans, jars and boxes. With my husband on the road nearly 365 days, I certainly don’t bake for myself. Time passes and before you know it, most of the stuff in the cupboard is out of date. I remember the good old days, when the expiration date was when it was all used up! Maybe we used it up faster than we do now, but we never got sick from anything that took a while to use up.
With the end of the year looming, it is recommended that we change our batteries in our smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. And I think it is a good idea to go through the cupboards and check the freshness dates on the supplies you store there. Next week is supposed to be bitterly cold, and this could be a fun family project. You could use up all the products that have just slipped over the line of suspicious freshness, and have a great time helping and laughing, you could even make it a competition.
What if we came with freshness dates stamped on our bottoms when we are born? Do you think you would live your life any differently? Would you throw caution to the wind, and live recklessly? Or would you try to complete some sort of bucket list, before your date was up? Maybe you would do all you could for others, because you know you will stand before the Master and have to account for your time here on earth.
The truth of the matter is, none of us know when we will draw our last breath. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do a little refreshing of our own life’s closets and cupboards. Many of us will make New Year’s resolutions that we probably will not keep. Some may do better than other’s in our attempts on improvement. But in the end, only one thing can make us better than new, Salvation. We get a freshness date that never expires! What could possibly be better than that?
As parents we need to teach our children to appreciate the people around them each and every day, because we never know when our freshness date will be expired.
We as writers long for one of our writings to be as fresh as the day we wrote it a decade later. Until then, we can only aspire to reach the pinnacle of freshness that other great writers have achieved.
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
II Corinthians 5:17
Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;
Colossians 3:9
That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
Ephesians 4:22-24