BLUE RASPBERRY JOLLY RANCHERS

There are things in life that really cause me to wonder. One thing I spend time bumfuzzled over and wondering about is Blue Raspberry Jolly Ranchers. I just don’t understand. To help myself stay awake while traveling, I purchase a large variety bag of Jolly Ranchers. I prefer one with the traditional flavors: Apple, Blue Raspberry, Cherry, Grape, and Watermelon. I wish I could buy a bag with these flavors minus the Blue Raspberry. Blue Raspberry is my least favorite; grape, probably my most. This is the thing I wonder about: I keep my variety bag of Jolly Ranchers in my vehicle’s console. While driving, I open it and, keeping my eyes on the road, reach in blindly and pull out a Jolly Rancher. If I pull out a Blue Raspberry, I am disappointed, but to avoid waste, I make myself eat it. This, I think, also contributes to eliminating the Blue Raspberries from the bag giving me more of a chance at a different flavor next time. If only it would work that way. Here is my wonder—and, perhaps, my curse, but before I share it, let me analogize it. If Blue Raspberries were to represent bad experiences in life (trials and troubles), Grape represents the good ones (blessings). I want Grape but, it seems, I mainly get Blue Raspberries. And that’s my wonder.--a disproportionate number of times, I will reach into the bag and pull out a Blue Raspberry. You say, “Probably no more than other flavors; it just seems like you do because you dislike that flavor.” No, really. Ask my wife. She travels with me. One time, particularly disgruntled with extracting only Blue Raspberries, I insisted she watch. That day of travel, I blindingly, drew from the bag six Blue Raspberries successively in a row. Six! With five different flavors, what are the odds of that? I was annoyingly flummoxed. How can this be? Does this just happen, no explanation, just happens? Is it just a coincidence? Is it a fluke, raw randomness? Does a gleeful, pesky tiny demon live in the bag and push the Blue Raspberry flavored pieces towards my grasping fingers? Has the cosmos conspired against me determined to persecute me by foisting the Blue Raspberries upon me? Is there any scientific, logistic, or statistical explanation? Is there a physiological property in my fingers that magnetize them to Blue Raspberry? Is God chastising me trying to wean me from my sweet tooth? Is my wife clandestinely taking all the other flavors out of the bag? Is there more of the Blue Raspberry denomination in the bag to begin with, a greater ratio of that flavor increasing the odds of my picking it? Are the Blue Raspberries during packaging added in the center of the bag which makes them more accessible to my reaching hand? Do I not notice when I draw my favorite flavor out in a long chain of succession? You can tell I’ve spent a lot of time wondering about this. What do you think is the reason I keep getting Blue Raspberries? Or is there no reason? No, please, don’t give that answer. I do not like thinking there is no reason. I do not believe in coincidence. I do not believe in random. I believe that everything has a cause except the Uncaused One. Yet, I do not believe in determinism, predestinationism. I believe that God has given us free will. But, even beyond cause and free will, I believe that God is sovereign. God is in control. God’s will WILL happen. He does all things for our good and His glory—and, thankfully, our greatest good intersects at the junction of His greatest glory. Yes, we have free will. Yes, everything has a cause. But, yes, the steps of a man are ordered of the Lord. Even when he seems to keep getting Blue Raspberry Jolly Ranchers.

BLUE RASPBERRY JOLLY RANCHERS

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