How Sweet It Is

 

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n North Carolina, we like our tea sweet!  In fact, if you order tea in North Carolina, it’s going to be both iced and sweet.  There simply is no other way to drink it!!!!!  That’s what I thought until I came to Texas.  Here, the tea is iced but it is not sweet.  Several establishments offer sweetened iced tea but standard fare is iced tea without any sugar added. 

 

Several years ago, I was discussing the virtues of sweetened iced tea with a lady in a local restaurant.  She wanted to know exactly how sweet we drink our tea in North Carolina.  So, I explained to her that North Carolina tea had three distinct uses.  If the tea is iced, it serves as a refreshing drink.  If the tea were heated, it could be served over pancakes as syrup.  Last but not least, I explained that our tea had so much sugar in it that NASA is considering it as an alternative source of fuel for the space program.  She looked at me aghast!  “I don’t understand how you can drink sweetened tea!”  I had to chuckle at her comment.  She made the last statement as she dumped two packets of artificial sweetener into her tea!!  

 

I assure you there is a point to all this rambling about sweetened tea.  Just after moving into my house, I made my first gallon of sweetened tea.  I had almost forgotten how to make it but slowly and surely, I remembered.  It’s kind of like riding a bike; you never really forget.  After bringing the water to a boil, I dumped in the appropriate amount of sugar and let it dissolve.  As soon as the sugar entered the water, the entire mixture took on a different complexion.  After a few seconds however, the water became clear, and it was impossible to see the sugar.  It had completely melted and had become part of the water.  The two elements were now totally inseparable and indistinguishable from each other. 

 

As I watched the sugar dissolve into the hot water, one of the greatest truths in all the Scriptures came to mind.  The Apostle Paul understood the principle of being lost in and totally inseparable from Jesus Christ.  Paul knew that when we are in Christ, when we belong completely to him, when we accept him as our savior and Lord, we are secure.   There is no way we can escape from his love.  Like the sugar in the boiling water, we become one with Christ, united in a bond and in a relationship that are both eternal. 

 

In Romans 8:35; 37-39, Paul writes, “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 

 

What a glorious passage this is.  Paul categorically states that in no way can we be separated from the love of Christ.  People can’t do it, circumstances can’t do it, nothing in our past can separate us from him, nothing in our future will, no power on earth, no distance, and not even death can separate us from our God.  Once we have entered into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ, the love of God completely enfolds us, surrounds us, engulfs us, and cleanses us.  God lays complete claim on us, and his claim is eternal. 

 

One more thing you need to know about North Carolina tea.  The longer it sits, the sweeter it becomes.  Isn’t this the way our relationship to God is supposed to be? The longer we are with him, the more we get to know him, the deeper we understand him, and the greater our trust in him, our relationship with him grows sweeter and sweeter.  So, can I offer you a tall, cool glass of spiritual sweetened iced tea today?  I think you’ll find it most refreshing!