Maybe you got yours at the ballpark during the seventh inning stretch. Or possibly you chased down the ice cream truck and shouted your order above the high-pitched clamor of music and other children. Or maybe your mom pulled a box from the garage deep freeze on long, sweltering summer nights. However you procured one, I imagine just about everyone of you has had a Bomb Pop. You remember--the cherry, lemon/lime, blue raspberry ice pop creation on a stick vaguely resembling a rocket. Yum. Makes me want one right now.
This time of year I get the opportunity to take all three kids with me to the grocery store most weeks. It is also the time of year that an assortment of items end up in my cart that have not been sanctioned. Popsicles top the list. My kids absolutely love Popsicles and ask for them every time we walk the frozen tundra otherwise known as the Frozen Foods section. You should hear them beg! They give me every sob story and proposition known to motherhood. God used their desire for Popsicles to remind me of an important lesson. We often don't realize what blessings we have until they are no longer there. The flip side is that we don't appreciate something until we've longed for it and had to do without it. You know the saying "Absence makes the heart grow fonder"? Or the one that says, "You don't know what you've got until it's gone"? Popsicles are a perfect example of that.
Think about the hottest summer day you can remember. No breeze in the air, no shade to be found, and no central air. Maybe you have a fan, but it just shifts the hot, humid air across your dripping wet face. Now imagine a Bomb Pop. It cools your throat as the icy goodness melts its way down to cool you from the inside out. Your breath swirls around when you exhale, cooling your face. Ahhh...heaven. You appreciate the Popsicle all the more because of the heat you've experienced. It would not be nearly as welcome if it were a sub-zero winter's day.
Now apply that to most anything in life. Don't you appreciate clean sheets and your comfy bed after spending the night away from home? After hearing someone vent about their uncaring husband, aren't you just a little more thankful for the one you have waiting for you at home? When the baseball game gets rained out and you get an unusual free night with the whole family at home, don't you just relish the unscheduled time to watch a movie and eat a leisurely meal? There are so many other things that could fill in the blank. It is because of the difficulties ( not in spite of them) that we can truly appreciate and be grateful for the blessings that surround us.
What are you thankful for today that you might not appreciate if you didn't have the pain or the frustration or the inconvenience that preceded it? Peace, marriage, children, career, material comforts, friends, home, health--a Bomb Pop? Why not celebrate today by thanking God for all the good things He's given us. Then buy a box of Bomb Pops and share a few with the kids.
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