Peanut Butter

I love peanut butter. I put it on celery with raisins to make “ants on a log.” I spread it on my apple slices. Peanut butter and bananas on toast is awesome! I love peanut butter between two Ritz crackers. Everything really does taste better on a Ritz. I love the Friendly’s peanut butter sauce they put on their ice cream sundaes. I love peanut butter pie. Reese’s peanut butter cups are my favorite candy, and, of course, there are peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I always wondered though. What kind of jelly is the correct choice? Grape? Strawberry? Would you use orange marmalade? How about raspberry or blackberry jam? Who decides? Is there a Board of PB&J that makes such official decisions? And, were they also the ones who decided on jelly in the first place? Why peanut butter and jelly? What rebels the Fluffernutter people must have been when they introduced their marshmallow creme as an option for pairing with peanut butter. Not to mention the Nutella folks! That’s total anarchy! When you stop and think about it, actually, peanut butter and marshmallow, or peanut butter and a chocolate-hazelnut cream. How is that a lunch? Isn’t that kind of like putting a Snickers bar between two slices of bread? That’s not lunch. That’s dessert. It’s like when we pretend doughnuts are a breakfast food. How are doughnuts also not a dessert? I mean, when I go to the fair, I like getting a piece of fried dough. Aren’t doughnuts just deep fried little mounds of dough covered in a sugar glaze? Sure, that’s just like scrambled eggs or oatmeal. Right. I am full of questions like that. I have a really strange mind.

I have never had a peanut butter that was “gross.” I admit it is a bit of a pain with natural peanut butter to have to mix it up because the oil collects at the top, but I like all kinds of peanut butter. However, I am apparently a “choosy mother,” because I choose Jif. I just like it better than the others. I don’t understand how all peanut butters are made from basically the same ingredients: roasted peanuts, sugar, oil, and salt. Yet, they don’t all taste the same. Weird. Whatever the reason, I like Jif. What is a “Jif” anyway? Anybody know?  

I can’t specifically explain why I like Jif better, I just do. Similarly, there are some things about my faith I cannot always specifically explain either. I just believe. Many people are waiting to see incontrovertible proof of the existence of God, which will never come. The Bible says, “…God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom…” (1 Corinthians 1:21). Meaning, there will never be a video tape, audio recording, or personal appearance that will remove all doubt. Faith is a personal choice. We choose to believe or not. Besides, even if there was video, those same people would dismiss it as fraudulent.

No, there is something inside us, something we cannot explain or always understand that just convinces us it’s true. God is real. Jesus is His Son. The Holy Spirit is still at work in the world today. I can’t specifically explain why I believe that. I just do. Those of us who do believe are blessed. Remember when Thomas said he would not believe Jesus had come back from the dead until he saw it with his own eyes? Jesus said to Thomas in John 20:29, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.” 

Hey, it’s not that we don’t have our days. We do. We can identify with the father whose demon-possessed boy was healed by Jesus in Mark 9, said to the Lord, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24) On the days that you’re struggling, ask God to help you overcome your doubt as well. He will answer you. You are blessed for believing without seeing.

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