C is for CANDY

I haven't made any new year resolutions at all this year. I don't think I made any last December either but there are always a few thoughts running around my head as we approach another January that I probably should pay more heed to than I do. Still, it always strikes me as a bit odd why people wait right until the start of a new year before taking action about something that has possibly become a bit of a vice in their lives. I read on the news this morning that January is the most popular month to give up smoking with one in every eight smokers making an attempt to stop. It reminds me of a good friend who has tried numerous times and many new years to give up the weed and yet on the last day of the year smokes as many as he can with the thought that it will be his last day inhaling nicotine. He has failed miserably every time - so far. For others today will be the day they resolve to do something about their over expanded waistlines, their excessive use of alcohol, their chocolate addiction, their sweet craving or some other area that has become vice-like in its control. Many will use today in the same way as the smokers to have their last plate of chips, bar of chocolate, packet of candy, pint of lager, glass of whisky and most will fail miserably. Why? Because they enjoy too much what they are trying to give up. Why else would they plan to stop on a certain day of the year, make little effort or preparation before that day and on the the eve of their resolution coming into effect, have one last binge, just for old time's sake?

I heard a story yesterday from a good friend in church. It involves a candy cane, like the picture above and illustrates best the resolution or change we all need to consider, not just on New Year's Eve but on any day of the year. Since the late sixteen hundreds, white sugar sticks or candy canes, bent into the shape of a shepherd's crook had been given out by a German choirmaster to children in church at Christmas. At the beginning of the last century, however, red stripes and later green stripes began to appear in the sticks and the story goes that an Indiana candy maker designed them that way to tell the true story of Christmas. So here it is.

The shape of the shepherd's staff is to remind us that the first people to hear of the baby Jesus after His birth were shepherds but it also is a symbol of the fact that Jesus often referred to Himself as The Good Shepherd. If you turn the cane upside down, it represents the letter J for Jesus which means 'He shall save His people from their sins'. Like all confectionery. the candy cane is sweet and this is to tells us that we are fed on the sweet milk of the Gospel for our salvation and it is also hard because Jesus is the rock of our salvation.

The white of the candy cane not only reminds us that His mother was a virgin, but also that He lived a sinless life on earth and that our lives can be made as white as snow if we believe in Him. The original candy cane had three small red stripes that represented the marks of the whips on His body through which we are healed, but it also has one thicker red stripe that symbolised the blood that He shed for each person though His death. The green stripe that was added later came to represent not only God's gift to us, since green is the colour of giving, but also the new growth that happens in our lives when we believe.

Like all resolutions, to follow the God illustrated in the candy cane, needs a lot of thought and commitment on our part, so that in a few days we are not drawn back to the life that we once lived. The difference, however, in this case is that Jesus is there constantly to help us and He also sends His spirit to live in us and direct our lives. That doesn't mean we are never tempted to go back to the old vices but it does mean we have help to overcome temptation. In truth, there is nothing wrong with temptation, it's the giving in that does the damage. The Psalmist tells us 'God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.'

As we struggle with our candy canes, our cigarettes, our food mountains, our empty bottles and all the other things we want to leave in 2007, take the advice of Isaiah when he writes 'This is what the Lord says........Forget the former things;do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing!Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.'

May you be successful in your resolutions next year, may it be a year worth remembering for all the right reasons and may you fins the Jesus of the candy cane story bringing sweetness to your every day. Happy new Year.