Misleading titles

Blueberry - imitation blueberries, artificially flavored Muffin Mix

My aunt sent me a care package a while back and I have yet to use the muffin mix she included in that package. When bringing the mix to the kitchen tonight an unmentioned person scoffed at the lack of homemade or natural ingredients. I laughed but commented that at least it had blueberries in it. No so, this friend countered - "I doubt even those are real". An inspection of ingredients revealed "artificial blueberry flavor bits," of which even those did not contain the slightest hint of real blueberry (dextrose, corn flour, partially hydrogenated soybean and/or cottonseed oil, sugar, citric acid, artificial flavor, blue 2, and red 40). Wow.

Isn't that like life, though? So many times we find ourselves trying to portray something that we don't have in us. We are fake. We try to be a poster child of God's grace but we loose our cool when a red light fails to change in less than ten seconds. We raise our hands and bow in holy worship but speak out anger and hatred a few hours later. And to steal an example from a message I heard here, we do anything (including driving in blizzard conditions at the drop of a hat) for a couple of free pizzas, yet we make excuses and balk when called last minute to a prayer meeting.

We need God in us - real portions of God - not the artificial flavor bits kind of god. I want the real stuff - the real blueberries in the real muffins and the real God in my life.