God Still Loves Black Jellybeans
Over the weekend, I had the pleasure of engaging my board responsibility for BRIDGES, an academic leadership program for people employed within higher education in the State of North Carolina. The venue where the program was held feeds us “till we want no more.” One of the staples several of us look forward to is the jellybean dispenser. I love jellybeans, all flavors, with the exception of the black ones. I’m not a fan of licorice so even though I eat an army of jellybeans, rest assured that the black ones will be left behind. As I looked around the room, I noticed the black jellybeans were trending, and not in the best way. They were discarded. They were unattended. They appeared to not be chosen. In some seasons, it feels like you present as the black jellybean. However, there is good news. Could it be that God has us precisely where He desires? Could it be in times of isolation that we actually receive the refreshing and connection that our soul so desperately needs?
Every time I turned that dispenser, beautiful, rich and lively colors and flavors poured out into my snack cup and then seemingly out of nowhere a black jellybean would land, mimicking life, attempting to make me neglect the myriad of blessings I’m afforded, as I focus on the one thing that feels as though it’s taking up more space than anything else. Beloved, in those moments we must remind ourselves of the history of who God has been and continues to be - even when our humanistic tendencies show up and try to convince us otherwise. I Samuel 16:7 reads, “For the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh at the heart.” Even as calamity occurs all around us, we have the option of remaining focused on the One who knew what was arriving before it showed up at our doorstep. As people reject us, overlook us and fail to take into consideration the impact of their decisioning, we can rest in and upon Psalm 27:10, which reads, “When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.” While my father passed away when I was four years old, I’ve been blessed to still see God’s hand over my 93 year old mother’s life. She’s never abandoned me, but even in all her love and witness, she isn’t God; and she doesn’t understand me like the Creator. We are never discarded by God - whether through difficulty, challenge, tragedy or triumph - He is with us! When we feel abandoned, like countless black jellybeans, scattered across the room, God intentions to gather us, hold us close, affirm us, anoint us, appoint us and send us on our way to fulfill the purpose He’s assigned to us, all while holding our hand.
We were never promised to operate in the earth without trouble; and because each of us has something to navigate alone, our individual regulation of our own lives may present as ignoring someone else, when actually, we are trying to make it to the next breath. God still uses us in seasons when it’s dark and lonely. God’s concern for our wellness doesn’t cease in barren times. God still speaks in silence. God still grows in lack. The one who neither sleeps, nor slumbers is an exhale away. And…He loves us in every condition - even camouflaged as black jellybeans.