ELDER: Let's not excuse our lack of Christlikeness

 Recently one of my daughters and her family were in the candy-making town of Hershey, Penn.. As part of their experience at that place, they had the opportunity to make their own special candy bars. If I understand it correctly, within certain guidelines they were able to choose their own ingredients and the proportion of those elements in each of their creations. When the treat was completed, it was a unique Hershey’s candy bar with that particular person’s name emblazoned on the wrapper.

It reminds me of our condition as followers of Jesus. All of us who are putting our trust in the Lord have a connection with Him. However, at the same time we each have our unique qualities. We aren’t all cut out of the same mold or possess the exact same characteristics, talents or personalities. We all carry the name of Christ but with our own names identifying us as unique creations of His. We should all be like Jesus, but that image will look a little differently in each one of us. If I may use the candy bar analogy, we should all have a measure of the sweetness and love of Christ in us, but we will all have our own original taste. And no doubt about it, some of us are nuttier than others.