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The Cookie Monster and Original Sin

Originally written on June 30, 2005

Being one of the few remaining families in the world who do not have some form of cable or satellite for their televisions, it is no surprise that the Landress home receives only one channel really well. So on Saturday morning I found myself in a place that I had not been in a long time. Enjoying the childhood pleasures of Sesame Street.

Sesame Street is a place where you expect to hear songs that help you remember your numbers, alphabet, and colors. Most of which I am happy to say I still remember really well. What I did not expect to find was a lesson in Theology as I slowly sipped my coffee at 7 a.m.

My theology lesson came to me via Cookie Monster. In typical fashion he was expounding on the wonderfulness that only a cookie can bring- a feeling that I share with this warm fuzzy creature. Then he made a comment that I will try to quote for you the best that I can. He said "Normally I would say that I am not going to eat cookie, but let’s face fact. I am going to eat this cookie!"

This little statement had more punch than I am sure the writers intended for it to have. The fact of the matter is that the people who write for Sesame Street understand what we seldom understand. The lesson that Cookie Monster is teaching is one we all need a refresher course on and that is the Doctrine of Sin and Depravity.

Just like our blue fuzzy companion we are born with a nature that is helpless when it comes to sin. Like the Cookie Monster we will all break down at the sight of a "good cookie." It is the nature that we are born with and it is the nature that we so desperately need to be delivered from.

The apostle Paul understood this when he wrote in Philippians 3: 17-19 of those people that he labeled as "enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is their shame…." This is where we are apart from Christ and this is why we are so desperate for the regenerating power of the cross.

Let us examine our own lives this week and seek to live our life with only the cross of Christ to boast in and nothing else. We know that Cookie Monster is only "make believe." But we also know that we are born with the same appetites and nature. The answer is Christ Jesus, but I never would have imagined that the teacher would be Cookie Monster.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Mitch,
the is one of my all-time favorites! thanks for sharing your revelations.
In Christ,
Dianne
4:35 AM
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