Fortune Cookies

Alright, this may seem like a small thing to most of you, but as someone who values chinese restaurants, this question is valid. What has happened to fortune cookies? Many people used to look forward to getting their fortune cookie at the end of their chinese meal. But now, many dread the end of the meal, since there will be a rock-hard, plastic-wrapped, sugar pellet thrown at them from across the room by someone who seems like they are from the eastern world. Oh, and yes, you get a fortune, if it can be called that. Many times it is not even a fortune, but a saying that may or may not be valuable at all. For example, "He who laughs at himself never runs out of things to laugh at." Is that a fortune or a proverb or what?

Ok, so this is a little bit extreme, but I would like to talk a little bit about a principle found within fortune cookies. In essence, a fortune cookie is supposed to give you a prediction of how your life will go. But a gigantic flaw exists in this logic. Can you think of it? Try this: You can get more than one fortune cookie. Is it coming to you? How can anyone have more than one fortune? The simple answer is that nobody can have more than one fortune. And fortunes are not told by small pieces of paper inside a cracker. Our lives are what we make them. The choices we make, whether right or wrong, make us who we are.

Now comes the question, "How do we know what is right and wrong?" The simple answer is that God tells us through the Bible. Granted, God didn't outline every choice that we will ever have to make in our entire life. But He has provided us with principles, guides, and examples to follow. Whenever someone begins talking about, "making good choices," I can't help but think of my nephew, Jonathan, who has been taught to recognize when someone (especially his little brother Matthew) is, "making bad choices". Every now and then, he can be heard saying, "hmmm...Matthew's making bad choices!" It can be quite comical, but at the same time a fundamental truth is presented. When our minds are trained correctly, we can more easily see the "good choices" we should make.

When we retrieve the fortune from inside the cookie, I believe that each time it proves that we have an infinite number of choices that can lead to several outcomes in the physical life. Those "fortunes" could apply to anyone, it all depends on the choices he or she makes. Let's all try to make good choices through life, ones based on Biblical principles and examples that will lead us on the path to Heaven.

John 14:6

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.