ONE SIZE DOESN'T FIT ALL

Whenever my husband and I enjoy Chinese food, we always look forward to the “fortune cookie” at the end.  The little aphorism tucked inside usually brings a chuckle and a skeptical “oh, sure” response.  I always thought that fortune cookies went way back, maybe to Marco Polo or beyond. How wrong I was.  Two stories claim to be its real history.  One is dated 1914 and concerns a Japanese immigrant who designed the famed Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park.  A boss who didn’t like people of his ethnicity fired him; a sympathetic boss hired him back. The grateful employee created the cookie with a thank-you note inside and later made them in quantities to pass out at the garden. The second credit, dated 1918, goes to a Chinese immigrant in Los Angeles who was concerned about the poor he saw wandering in the streets.  He created the message-cookie, putting in tiny papers with inspirational scriptures supplied by a Presbyterian minister.  After World War II, the cookies become commonplace in Chinese restaurants, and contained aphorisms or sage advice.  The demand continues: one fortune cookie company makes sixty million a month.

Of course, few would consider these little sayings to be messages from God. Yet I’ve observed people who trifle with Bible verses as though random passages were their “fortune cookie” from God.  There’s a joke (albeit sad) about a fellow who wasn’t much for reading his Bible.  One desperate day, he decided to open it, close his eyes, and put his finger on whatever passage showed up.  His finger landed on Matthew 5:5: “Then Judas went away and hanged himself.”  That didn’t seem like a good choice, so he did another random stab.  This time it was John 13:27: “What you are about to do, do quickly.”

BETTER ADVICE

Don’t do that!  The Bible is not a fortune-telling instrument.  But it is a truth-revealing book taken in its entirety. So...what do we do with books like Proverbs, which seem made-for-fortune cookies with its two-line nuggets?  In my Bible, Proverbs is full of highlighting and notes.  For example, one that’s especially meaningful to me is Proverbs 16:10:

When a man’s ways are pleasing to the LORD, he makes even his enemies live at peace with him.

Sadly,  I’ve learned that’s not always true. Some people are so steeped in bitterness and misinformation that their hearts are closed. But I balance that with the counsel of Romans 12:18-19:

If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.   Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath.

The verse goes on to quote a proverb about returning kindness to an enemy. In the culture in which it was written, that included kindnesses like supplying food and water.  And no, you don’t throw burning materials at them, as some misinterpret verse 20: “In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” This harkens to long-ago lifestyles before the invention of matches.  Fires kept people warm and cooked their food.  To have a fire go dead was a hardship.  Sending a pot of live coals to rekindle a fire (usually carried in a pot on one’s head) was a generous and caring gesture.

Next time you open a fortune cookie, remember to take the counsel with a grain of salt (or pepper). And remember another Biblical nugget that praises God for His wisdom and provision for our lives:

he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things. (Psalm 107:9).

Lots more, and lots better, than bent little cookies.

Thirsty

Close to the middle of this photo are deer drinking in the river.

“I see some deer,” my husband exclaimed as he pulled our car off the canyon road. We were about 80 miles from home, enjoying the autumn colors on a lesser-traveled road. Climbing over a guard rail, we stood on a ledge hundreds of feet away from four deer drinking the chilly river water. They soon detected human presence, and bounded back up the hill into their hiding places.

The opening words to Psalm 42 came to mind: “As the deer pants for streams of waters, so my soul pants for you, O God.” I recalled explaining that psalm to a group of women years ago. One, her face chiseled by her hard life before she came to Christ, said, “I can relate to thirsting for God.”

The Hebrew word that we translate “pant” is arag and this is its only use in the Bible. It also means “to long for.” I can understand the thirst and panting that compels an animal to find water. I once had two fawns in my house (aka long-legged young teens) who became substitute paper carriers for a huge route serving more than a hundred customers. Of course, it was summer’s most blistering week and Mom had to come along as driver. I made sure we all filled our water bottles before going to the paper drop-off point, where we sat in the meager shade outside the car. Unfortunately, that was next to the locked-up swimming pool of a manufactured home community. I shot a mom’s glance that said, “Don’t even think about climbing the fence for a few cannonballs while we wait.”

After an hour, the water bottles were drained and my fawns were gasping, “I’m d-y-i-n-g” (which made me think of a cowboy song that includes a lot of yippee-yi-yoos). Finally, I decided to drive us home to refill the water bottles and call the newspaper about our tardy delivery. “Sorry, the press broke down,” the harried circulation assistant said. “I don’t know when your bundles will be delivered. You’ll just have to stay at the dropoff point.” So back we went to wait. My two fawns were about to drop out of this. Yes, the papers did eventually come and we sweated through the route in record time. Home again, they collapsed with more long drinks of water...while I had to figure out dinner. (How about ice cube soup?)

Whether a blistering summer afternoon, or a chilly autumn morning, thirst is a normal part of our creation. It’s also a symbol of our longing to be refreshed and satisfied by the One who created us. That’s why, as we drove away from watching the deer, I thought of other scriptures that speak of spiritual thirst:
“He satisfies the thirsty.” (Psalm 107:9)
“Come, all you who are thirsty.” (Isaiah 55:1)
“If a man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.” (John 7:37)
“Whoever is thirsty, let him come.” (Revelation 22:17)

We hear so much today about the “WWW,” the world-wide web. It precedes the internet addresses of sites like mine. But we also need to be life-long students of the Bible’s “world-wide word webs,” discovering how even single words in this God-inspired book are interconnected in amazing ways. When we arag after God—longing for, even panting for Him--He promises to satisfy that thirst in the deepest part of who we are.