The Aroma of Coffee

“Do we harden against God like the egg or take the aroma of God like the coffee in testing situations?” anon

I love the aroma of Coffee! Nothing like a whiff of a good espresso to make me want to indulge. Flat whites are my coffee of choice at the moment but I am partial to the odd Latte. Coffee is my happy place, and those gingerbread coffees from Starbucks – well it’s like Christmas in a cup!

It’s amazing how much flavour (and caffeine!) can come from a few beans. They’re definitely a big punch for a small package. It’s an interesting combination – beans, hot water, steamed milk, and voila a great concoction is only seconds away.

Funny thing though, you can add food items to boiling water and they have differing reactions. You can place an egg in boiling water, and you can add coffee to boiling water and you end up with two different results. The egg, so fragile when it goes in. Its thin outer shell protecting a liquid interior, but after sitting in boiling water, its insides became hardened. The coffee, on the other hand, has a different result. It actually changes the water to which it has been placed. The bean actually changes the hot water. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavour.

We have a choice as we journey through life and navigate what it throws at us. To be like an egg or like coffee.

Are we like the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Do we start with a free spirit, but after some hardship, pain or loss we become hardened and stiff? On the outside we still look the same, but on the inside we have a hardened heart. Once we were open to God, but now we barely respond to His presence.

Or are we like the coffee bean. The bean that actually influences and changes the environment where it’s been put. Hot water or adversity just brings out the flavour or the goodness of the spirit even more. Trials cause us to reveal God more, and to trust Him more. Trials bring us closer to Him.

What comes out of our heart when we are under pressure reveals who we really are. What happens when the pressure is on in our lives? What comes out?

Eggs or Coffee – our choice.