A Trip to the Local Store Cookie Isle
The other day, I was shopping for our monthly groceries, restocking with supplies of pasta, rice, produce, meats, and all the good things that go into making a house a home. I paused at several isles, contemplating what I needed and which brand, size, and so on, would be the best to buy. I am always looking for the best value.
I rarely buy cookies and sweets though. This day, I decided that I would like some Oreo Cookies, a special treat with wonderful childhood memories. As I rounded the cookies isle, I was stopped dead in my tracks. Both sides of the isle were lined with cookies and snack cakes, from one end to the other.
I quickly found the Oreo Cookies. Well, almost. Instead of the regular, two chocolate cookies with vanilla cream sandwiched between, I now had a choice of eighteen (18) different styles of Oreos, including the original. I now had to make a choice.
There were cookies with vanilla cookies and chocolate centers, vanilla cookies with vanilla centers, chocolate and chocolate, double vanilla and double chocolate, chocolate and peanut butter, cakes, and sticks of cookies, and chocolate, or vanilla. My head began to swirl!
I was now more than confused. When did all these variations of Oreo Cookies come to be? Wasn’t the “original” cookie good enough? Was it really necessary to have this much choice?
And then it happened. I suddenly realized that the same was true of potato chips, mustard, coffee, tea, and butter, eggs, milk, and virtually every product that I buy. I had just become “accustomed” to the variety in the other isles over time. Different brands had slowly been introduced over time and I had not noticed. But with the cookies, I had not been paying attention. It caught me by surprise.
How it must grieve our Heavenly Father to watch as we indulge in such excess while much of the world is starving. In parts of Africa, over 250,000 refugees are fleeing, not from war, but from draught and famine. Nearly one in five children in this country go to bed hungry every night. And we have eighteen (18) different Oreo Cookies to choose from. God Help Us!
