Let's Talk: Christmas Traditions
When Being a Fruitcake is a Good Thing…
For some people, nothing says Christmas quite like a fruitcake. Aunt Margaret’s or Grandmother’s original recipe is passed from generation to generation. Some people even save the cake itself and pass it around for long periods of time, so much so that Johnny Carson once joked on the “Tonight Show,” “There is only one fruitcake in the entire world, and people keep sending it to each other.”
Fruitcake is an ancient invention. The oldest fruitcakes were something like energy bars made by the Romans with barley, honey, wine, and dried fruit to nourish soldiers in battle. The precursor to the modern fruitcake—a buttery cake filled with fruit and nuts—probably was first baked in the Middle Ages in Europe.
Whether or not you like fruitcake, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you possess the “fruit of the spirit.” You don’t get to choose to be one flavor—a love cake or a peace cake—you gained all of the fruit when you came to Jesus. You are a fruitcake filled with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
The question is, can others taste the flavor? Are you allowing the Spirit to use all of the fruit you possess to bless those you come in contact with and bring glory to the Master Baker?
“For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth” (Ephesians 5:9).
“You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you” (John 15:16).
