The state of Texas’ favorite ice cream, Blue Bell, returned to shelves this week after four months of stopped production due to a Listeria problem and 3 deaths in April.
Texans mourned the loss of this important dessert, especially during the summer. Memes were created, odes were written, t-shirts printed and people fasted from ice cream until Blue Bell returned (okay, so I’m not absolutely sure people fasted).
And when Blue Bell returned to the shelves on August 31, people were waiting in line at 5:30am to buy ice cream. In many places it was sold out by midday. Yes, there was much joy and dancing in the aisles of stores and in homes (no I didn’t witness it, but I can imagine it happened).
It’s return has been delicious. (Actually, I haven’t bought any, so I can’t definitely say it’s delicious, but again, I can imagine it is.)
We missed Blue Bell so much. We were creative in marking its absence. We used it as a topic of conversation. We eagerly anticipated it’s return. And rejoiced when we had it in our lives once again.
The return of Blue Bell has made me think…If we can do things like this for Blue Bell ice cream, what can we do for our faith?
We missed our Blue Bell ice cream and mourned our separation from it, can we mourn our separation from God when we do wrong and sin? We anxiously waited in line for the return of ice cream, can we anxiously wait in line and seek Confession?
We were creative in memes and poems about our beloved dessert, can we be creative in sharing our faith with others? We would casually mention missing Blue Bell ice cream, can we casually mention something about our faith in conversation?
Yes, the return of Blue Bell ice cream is great! We really do we enjoy our ice cream, especially in this Texas heat, and especially when it’s our beloved Texas Blue Bell.
So can we savor movements of a faith like we savor ice cream? Or can we only allow ourselves to show the world our love of things like ice cream and not our love of our faith?
