What seems ridiculous when you first encounter it may make sense when you investigate more deeply.

Have you ever been half awake in bed, with the sun just starting to create shadows in your room? You look at something across the room through half closed, blurry eyes, but you can’t figure it out. It looks like a box with the lid opened slightly and some papers sticking out of it. 

You know that there was no box in your room when you went to bed. It’s ridiculous to think that there is a box there, but you’re fascinated because it looks so real. 

As you start to rub your eyes and raise your head off the pillow, you begin to see what is really there beside the closet door.

It’s just the shirt that you left on the floor. Yet the way it was arranged, mixed with the shadows and your blurry, skewed vision, it really looked like something completely different. 

Sometimes those scenarios take so much thought and energy that you flop your head back on your pillow and hit the snooze button as you mutter under your breath, “Well, that mystery is solved.”

Today I was looking at a Dr Pepper sign I have in our basement when I noticed something. There was a clock-shaped figure on it with just three numbers. The hands on this clock were pointing to three numbers: 10, 2, 4.  

At first I wondered, “This is ridiculous. Why would they just mark three numbers on the clock and why those three numbers?” 

But then I remembered I also have a Dr Pepper clock in my workout room and there are only three numbers on that clock. I wondered if they were the same three numbers. 

I checked and, sure enough, the clock has only three numbers and they are 10, 2 and 4. And on the clock, just to make it more ridiculous, the four is at the bottom of the clock where the six is supposed to be. 

As ridiculous as this seemed, I thought there has to be a reason, some explanation for all this. 

I investigated further and found out a few things about my favourite beverage: First, it’s the oldest soft drink in America. Second, it was created in Waco, Texas which explains why it is so popular in that state.

But what about my mystery? 

Well, it turns out that research back in the 1920’s and 30’s discovered that sugar gave people energy and that most people have a natural dip in energy at 10:30, 2:30 and 4:30. 

So Dr Pepper came up with a campaign to encourage people to drink Dr. Pepper at 10, 2, and 4.

My mystery was solved. What once seemed to be ridiculous actually had some reasoning and purpose behind it.

This topic has got me thirsty. I think I could go for a Dr. Pepper right now.

Here’s the thing: Over the years, there have been many things in the Bible that experts had deemed ridiculous. But each time the Bible has proved to be true. For example, some cities mentioned in the Bible, that experts said never existed, have been discovered by archeologists. The Bible says that in the end times people will be given a mark, and you won’t be able to buy or sell without it. That seemed far-fetched a couple of thousand years ago. But at this particular time with a global longing for a world wide vaccination, or not allowing people to travel without having that vaccine, the idea of a universal mark doesn’t seem ridiculous any more.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you need to investigate about God more deeply? Leave your comments and questions below.

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