Pop goes the Kernel

Popcorn is a unique and fun snack. Popcorn is a type of corn that expands from the kernel and turns into puffed corn when it is put under heat. 

I love to eat popcorn. There are different ways to cook it. When we were growing up we used to love to put it in a saucepan with some hot oil and shake it around until it all popped. We have also used an airpopper which gives you popcorn that would be a little healthier without the oil. Jiffy Pop was a self-contained tin that would puff up as you popped it on the stove-it was fun to watch it 'grow'. Different people put different toppings on their popcorn-salt, pepper, butter, caramel, and cheese.

Rumors have it that the Indians brought popcorn to the Thanksgiving feast with the Pilgrims a long time ago.

I like the fact that the corn changes it appearance and becomes something good to eat when put under heat.

When we are living one day at a time and following God's will for our lives we will have trials that come our way. I think that the ultimate example in the Bible of someone who literally went through the fire and came out a true testimony for God were Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They continued to follow the one true God and were thrown in a fiery furnace only to emerge unscathed.

When gold and silver are refined they are put in a fire and melted down. It comes out in a pure form. 

Zechariah 13:9 

"And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It [is] my people: and they shall say, The LORD [is] my God."

Job 23:10

"but He knows the way that I take, and when He has tried me I shall come forth as gold."

I Peter 1:7-8

"That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see [him] not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:"

I realize that in order to be perfected, I have to be put under some heat. It won't be a pleasurable experience but I should desire to have it done so that the end result will make me more like Christ. I would rather be more like a fully puffed piece of popcorn rather than a dud kernel that failed to pop when put under the heat.