Tainted Love

A juicy slice of orange would go down a treat.  I love a delicately

quartered orange. It was the ideal, light bedtime snack.

I selected my fresh, ripe orange which looked like a juicy one,

clutched it between my hands and carried it to a chopping board

and knife, at the ready, beside the cooker.

I cut two more slices and consumed them eagerly as I headed through the hallway.  The zingy juices tantalised the tongue and the vitamin C rushed past my taste buds with song!

But hang on a minute, midst the tangy sweetness lurked a strong, mystifying oniony flavour! This won’t do!

I shrugged it off. Perhaps the oranges had lain next to the onions in the superstore.

Later I returned to the kitchen, ready for the other half of the orange. With my knife I sliced the remaining segment in two, and then it dawned on me.    The penny dropped!  The knife I used to cut the orange had previously sliced an onion! Oops!

Make your life a pattern of right conduct, having in your teaching no taint of insincerity. Tit 2:7 (WNT)

Just as the purity of a delicate orange can be tainted by a fiery onion, a person’s heart and good works can be tainted by unloving attitudes. Isaiah warns that even our good deeds can be polluted. (Isa 64:6) Watch out today for people who seemingly say loving words, but their hearts are driven by tainted love.   Today may God help us to keep our loving devotion to God untainted and pure.

With Love   Rev Gill x

With their mouths they say they love,

but in their hearts they harbour deceit.” Ps 28:3