Forbidden Pomegranates?

Every now and then I get a crazy idea or two. I got the crazy idea to go talk to a beautiful blonde who attended my grandpa’s church. A few months later I got the crazy idea to propose to her. Fortunately for me, she had the totally insane idea to say yes. We must not be too crazy, we have lasted together almost 35 years.

I have told anybody who would listen, and many of them didn’t want to, that the apple was not the fruit that Adam and Eve ate in the Garden of Eden. Apples are colorful, tasty and easy to eat. They are beautiful. No, I am pretty sure that God intended for us to eat apples. The Bible doesn’t say apple, it just says, “fruit of the knowledge of good and evil.” Now, assuming that this tree still exists and didn’t get locked up when they closed the Garden of Eden, I think the fruit was most likely a pomegranate.

Hear me out. If there was ever any piece of something hanging off a tree that the Almighty did not expect people to eat, it is a pomegranate. Look at oranges. They are beautiful. You can peel them easily, they don’t stain your hands, and they are delicious.

Now look at a pomegranate. The skin of a pomegranate has the tensile strength of titanium. You need a hammer and chisel to peel one. Then, when you get into them you are faced with nasty, sour purply fruit that is a bunch of little orbs like spider eggs. They taste like I am sure spider eggs must taste, too. If you try to eat one of the spider eggs, I mean seeds, they stain your fingers and your mouth. I am positive that God never intended anyone to eat pomegranates. Have you ever wondered how God knew Adam and Eve ate the fruit they weren’t supposed to eat? You don’t have to be omniscient to look at someone and say, “Oh, you’ve been eating pomegranates haven’t you?” The evidence was all over their fingers. According to the Bible, Adam and Eve made clothing because they were ashamed they were naked. They should have also made gloves to hide the evidence!

If you eat a pomegranate you get stained. The mark shows. There are even sites on the Internet that explain how to get pomegranate stains out of your clothes and off your hands. Why would you eat them?

In the same vein, if you are a Christ-follower, it should show to everyone who comes into contact with you. It should show up in the way you talk, the way you act, and the things you do. If we are no different from anyone else, how can Christ show through us? Sure, each of us make mistakes, and there are more than a few times where I have totally eclipsed God’s light by my boorish behavior. Whenever I make a mistake, I go to God, ask for forgiveness and try to do better from then on.

Romans 12:2 says, “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” There should be something different about us. For years, Christians showed their difference by things like not going to movies, not smoking, or drinking alcohol. They may have had a point, but that verse goes further. We are to be transformed into a new person who thinks differently. It should show in us! Everybody who comes into contact with us should walk away saying, “That person knows Jesus…”

Now if I can just get people to say, “You’re the banana of my eye,” instead of “The apple of my eye.” Hey, I like bananas better than apples…

You’re the banana of my eye … Jerry.