I love the
series “Mad Men.” Most of the time, I confound my husband by binge watching
episodes of it on Netflix. And I’ve been especially giddy as I’ve barreled
through season six. I won’t spoil plotlines for you, but there was a particular
scene in which the Madison Avenue advertising protagonist, Don Draper was
pitching to Hershey’s.
Yes, the Hershey’s, the famous chocolate candy bar.
Yes, the Hershey’s, the famous chocolate candy bar.
Anyway, in
this pitch meeting, Don calls the candy bar “the childhood symbol of love” and
the “currency of affection.”
Yikes.
It’s squirmy
and brings to my mind the food issues many of us who struggle with disordered
eating possess. I have my own memories of the Hershey’s bar, during college, in
my highly bulimic phase, gorging on many of them via campus vending machines.
And yes, in my desperation, I was trying for that “childhood symbol of love”
and “currency of affection.” However, the candy bar did not deliver.
Food issues
have been around since the very beginning.
“And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and
that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise,
she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with
her; and he did eat.”
Genesis 3:6
Eve may not
have had a full-blown eating disorder, but it’s probably safe to say she had
some unrealistic expectations about the object of her fancy.
And isn’t that where we get ourselves into
trouble? Believing food will love, soothe and solve our lives? No such thing is
possible, however. We back the wrong horse.
God isn’t
anti-candy bar. Scripture tells us food is not
the evil issue...
“All
things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are
lawful for me, but all things edify not.”
1
Corinthians 10:23
“All
things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are
lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.”
The issue occurs, however, when we place such
importance to food. When we expect it
to heal our childhoods, provide unconditional love, support and entertainment, that’s usually when we run into such problems.
It will fail us, not because it’s
evil, but because it was never designed
to serve that purpose in the first place. God, however, does fulfill that role.
“We love him, because he first loved us.”
1 John 4:19
“The LORD hath appeared of old unto
me, saying, ‘Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with
lovingkindness have I drawn thee.’”
Jeremiah
31:3
“…I am come that they might have life,
and that they might have it more abundantly.”’
John 10:10
A candy bar is just a candy bar. But how much sweeter, how much more can God be to us?
A candy bar is just a candy bar. But how much sweeter, how much more can God be to us?
Copyright © 2016 by Sheryle Cruse
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