Once you arrive on the island you are immediately greeted by the smells of sweets and all sorts of foods. No motorized traffic is allowed on the island so the ferry companies have bicycles you can rent by the hour to make seeing things easier. If two-wheeled transport is not your forte then you can "pony" up some more cash and take a horse-drawn carriage. We chose to walk.
It was lots of fun to see all the sights and shops while admiring the architecture of the city. Lots of historic buildings line the streets and dot the island. Although I loved seeing everything, I have to admit that I was fascinated by the vast number of fudge shops. We saw our first one as soon as we came off the dock, and our timing was such that we came along right as a fresh batch of fudge was being poured out to cool.
The fudge, piping hot from a kettle, is poured out on marble-topped tables where it is turned over and over to help it begin to cool. The marble tops help absorb the heat so the molten fudge cools faster. The fudgeiteer--I am not sure what the worker turning and cooling to fudge is called but you have to admit fudgeiteer sounds really cool--takes a short paddle-like device with a metal head and walks around the table turning the runny fudge over and over before it can run off the table. Eventually the fudge cools to the point that he can shape it into long, slightly narrow rows where he then trims it for uniformity and then cuts it into approximately half-pound slices. It was truly fascinating to watch. This particular fudgeiteer had been making fudge for 29 years! Wow!
After walking the streets of the city and sampling various flavors of fudge from many, many shops we went home with a few slices to share with family, but my mind began to think back to the cooling and shaping of the fudge and how God wants to mold us in a similar way. No, God does not melt us down and pour us over a table constantly turning us until cool, but He does direct our lives in such a way as to guide us and make us what He wants us to be. And there are times that He does have to turn us away from danger or from making foolish mistakes, but unlike the fudge that inanimately complies we sometimes resist God's leading don't we?
Why do we resist? We resist, I think, because we want to do things our way and we don't want people to tell us what to do or when to do it. As independently thinking and living beings we have a sense of autonomy that we exercise to seek out our desires. That all changes or it should all change once we come to Christ. When we are surrendered to Him we should want to have His correction in our lives because we should realize that He is trying to fit us for heaven. Jesus only wants us to have happiness and abundant living.
Where are you today friend? Are you like molten fudge moving at the guidance of the master fudgiteer or are you hard and immovable as God tries to direct your life in such a way that will lead to eternal life and eternal happiness? It is my prayer that we each will learn how to let God have total control over our lives so that He can prepare us for heaven. I want God to mold and shape my life and I hope that is your prayer too.
Dear Father God,
Thank You for being so awesome and wonderful to us, Your creation. Please forgive us for where we have failed You. Teach us today to yield to Your correcting power that prepares us to be citizens of heaven. We long to meet Jesus in the air very soon. We pray in Jesus's name, Amen!
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