Articles
Trick or Treat?
Halloween is a rather strange day. It’s a day when people—mostly children, but some adults—will dress up like something they are not and be given treats because of it. It’s a bit of a paradox for parents. On the one hand, it seems that too many sugary sweets can have a child bouncing off the walls. But on the other hand, child-bouncing-off-the-walls gives the parent a reason to justify eating some of the candy.
Most people enjoy having something sweet. As people begin to collect mounds of treats, let us remember that there are a few things sweeter and more satisfying than anything collected in the Halloween bucket.
A relationship with God will leave us satisfied in a way that Snickers will not. That might seem like an obvious statement, but what do we really crave in our lives? Do we have a hunger for righteousness (Matthew 5:6)? We should be able to say, like the poet of old, “Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him” (Psalm 34:8).
We shouldn’t be surprised to find that the words and judgments that come from the mouth of the good God are compared to the sweetness of honey.
“They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb” (Psalm 19:10).
“How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (Psalm 119:103)
When we begin to become more and more like our God, we will be people of wisdom who speak words which are sweet rather than bitter.
“Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones” (Proverbs 16:24).
“Eat honey, my son, for it is good; honey from the comb is sweet to your taste. Know also that wisdom is like honey for you: If you find it, there is a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off” (Proverbs 24:13-14).
We have the possibility of being in a relationship with a good God whose wise words are sweet to the soul. What a treat! But, sometimes we get tricked. We get tricked into thinking that something else will be sweeter. This has been the problem which people have faced from the beginning.
Sin may seem sweet in the moment, but traveling away from God is a bitter path which inevitably harms ourselves and others. “Food gained by fraud tastes sweet, but one ends up with a mouth full of gravel” (Proverbs 20:17).
Spend some time reflecting on the tricks which get thrown our way in contrast to the true treat of knowing God. Nothing is sweeter than living in communion with our Creator.
