Candy Corn...

Candy Corn

Theology in the Trenches

by Kathleen Kjolhaug

Fall is just around the corner. I know it’s true because filling the candy isle are bags of candy corn. You know what I’m talking about. Those little triangular pieces of sugar which somehow manage to bring out the best in the taste buds are all out and about. White tipped beauties mingled with an orange center piece, rounded out with a final end of yellow or chocolate brown is what they look like. I prefer the chocolate brown myself.

We’ve all done it, set them up against our two front teeth bringing our lips just over the top letting the little white tips jut out as if the pointed fangs were our own. We’ve all nibbled from the tip to the end or the end to the tip and each one having a preference. The creamy stuff sort of just melts in your mouth and the savor of it lingers refreshingly offering a desert type atmosphere.

Incognito I was about my love of them round and about the house. As I longed for a flavorful taste or two throughout my day, I simply incorporated them into a candy dish “for my children” of course. Another way of disguising my love for the little gems was to utilize them as part of a math lesson once the school year began. We’d place them end to end making patterns or use the little white tips to point up, down, right, or left. All was quite ingenious as the children became motivated to partake in the task after the promise was made that they would surely be able to eat them once the lesson was complete.

Add a few peanuts to the pile and you have a ready to serve teacher’s lounge special of colorful goodies. Stick them onto a caramel apple and you have intriguing décor upon it. Add it to popcorn and sure enough, you have yourself a snappy blend of salt and sugar all in one. Place them atop ice cream and you have a melty chewy mess. They’re used for decorating cookies, cupcakes and more. Flat out, they are fun.

But still, candy corn would not be so wonderful if it were not seasonal. Candy corn midsummer just doesn’t do anything for me. Nor would it do anything mid-winter. Spring rains and candy corn mean nothing unless a few were found within a May basket. It has to be fall, the time when school is about to begin. It has to be when the weather is beginning to feel like a hometown football game, and it has to be found at the end of one of the isle within the store. You know which one I’m talking about. The same end of the isle that is home to Christmas, Valentine’s, and Easter candies or whatever the occasion may be.

Hebrews 4:7 says, “He fixes a certain day, ‘Today,’ saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before, ‘Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.’”

So, if you round that end isle, do not harden your hearts. Partake seasonally if you will. His word remains in season no matter the season, but you best grab that candy corn cause it just is no fun eating it come Christmas!  Amen.