"The Orange Juice," A Poetry Post

A soda is a made thing.

It’s body is not grown;

it is forced to exist by the

introduction of a poison.

The carbon dioxide hides itself

until you crack the bottle top and

then: FIZZ!

The liquid swells itself up into

something moderately satisfying.

It takes up more room

in your mouth because of

something artificial,

a pumping in of extra air that has

nothing to do with

quality refreshment or nourishment.

It is the air you cannot breathe,

the C-O-2,

that comes bursting out of your drink

and into your atmosphere,

sounding appealing while

poisoning you inside and out.

It is nothing at all like orange juice.

The orange is a created thing.

We have tried to recreate it by

changing seeds in complicated chemical processes but

it is an orange and it

grows from the stem of an

orange tree,

whose roots must be sprouted from a

divine seed.

You cannot make orange juice better by

adding things.

If you pour in a poison,

the flavor will change.

If you drop in foreign colors,

the very name of the drink becomes

irrelevant.

If you bottle it up and

attempt to stretch it

beyond its natural usefulness,

the juice will still die,

and rot,

and go bitter,

like us Christians do because

we—the Christian and the orange—are created things.

Why have we attempted to

grow ourselves up in the way that

modern science swells a coke?

The poison of pride does nothing

to truly beautify us.

It only provides a

temporary bodied taste that

fizzles out when the covers of our lives are

pulled away.

Why do we engage ourselves in poisonous

places and activities to

feel fuller?

Do we not yet understand that if we

put on pretty outer wrappers and

advertise substance,

that will not change the poisonous

outcome?

Behold! A Christian is not like soda at all!

It is we who have been called to

abide upon His Great Tree!

There is no way to circumvent the process.

God will plant the seed,

and there will be seasons and seasons and seasons.

Sometimes He will send a grower to cover you about,

to save you from the cold,

before you even know what you are!

Sometimes He will send a minister of His word to

ensure that you are fertile ground,

before you even know the thing that

God is going to grow!

Sometimes God himself will come down

with the pruning shears,

and cut away the outgrowths that you thought would need…

the weeds of insecurity and doubt and

other made, artificial things that we fruits wrongly

boast about.

Even so,

there must be seeding, planting,

sprouting, pruning,

growing, rain,

ice and heat and

preparation,

before the tree can bear the leaves that

will support the orange that is more like you and me.

And even after there’s an orange,

there is a paradigm shift where the orange is detached from the tree,

and graded by quality,

and checked for maturity,

and prepared for the great squeeze!

All of this is so before the refreshment,

before the presence of the pungent and sweet

nectar we meet in a glass of

orange juice.

Sure; soda is easier to make and maintain.

It is cheaper.

It is predictable.

It is uniform.

It is popular.

It costs us almost nothing to

concoct and bottle,

market and buy the

made up stuff.  

But God knows that our prayer is to be

the juice.

Only then will we come into our healing qualities.

Only then will we be nourishing and truly sweet in our

spheres of influence.

Only then can we truly be

accurate expressions of

who God is in the Earth.

Only then

can we be

glorious.

-T. D. James-Moss